Dig This Treasure!

An embarrassingly long time ago, I found a couple of old school autograph books at a sale. 

One is from the mid ‘30s and the other is from the mid '40s. I started browsing through them and the one from the '30s seemed normal enough. 

But then, in the '40s, Bertha seemed to face some hurdles. Specifically, speech hurdles. 

These “autographs” sort of crushed my soul! I know I am a Terrible Person, but all I could think of was Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club, shouting “DO I STUTTER?” into Emilio Estevez’s ear. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, here you go. Thanks to Adam for loopin’ that up for me. 

-Sarah

Less than a week before lil’ Everett arrived, Erin and I went on our last sale-ing excursion for a while. It wasn’t incredibly fruitful, but we did both find a couple of treasures. 

We started off in nearby Redford and hit up a sale that was very old lady-ish, but full of stuff, so that made it fun. 

I believe the woman was involved in community theater because there were some clothes there that seemed more like costumes than regular outfits. The whole attic/upstairs was filled with clothes/costumes. 

I had grabbed a bunch of clothes but when I went to check out, I noticed that a number of them were stained or grosser up close than I had realized, so I ended up putting a lot of it back. Erin grabbed this coat right away and told me it looked like something I’d buy because I love “quilted things”… that girl is right! I do! But this coat was horrid. 

There was a moment where I convinced myself that this coat wasn’t gross. Thank god I came to my senses. 

I really wanted this fabric artwork (the heart, not the elephant) but it had some water stains on it… whomp whomp. 

I thought this booklet was so freakin’ hilarious looking. 

In the end, I came away with these hideous shoes and that gingham shirt. I had to throw the shirt away because it was more stained than I realized (the woman threw it in for free because there were some small stains on the shoulder)… I liked those shoes a lot but now that I look at them… I don’t know! 

Next up on our list was a sale in Farmington that again, had a few cool items. I love these old prints… we see them a lot and sometimes they’re really pricey, and other times just moderately pricey. Who can tell me what they are, exactly? 

There was one at the sale before as well: 

Ahhhh! What are they?! 

Ok, back to the sale–there was a mix of antiques and oddly sexy stuff at this sale. 

That about sums it up. I walked away with a Halloween decoration that I’ll tell you more about on Halloween, and this cool old book. 

I can’t find a record for it anywhere–not even in our special library databases. I did discover that “Brownie Brace” is a nickname for a woman named Elizabeth Hanchett Brace, who appears to have written some other books that are less obscure. The illustrations in this book are super cool and art deco-y. 

Is that even art deco? If I’m wrong, someone correct me. It’s one of my favorite illustration styles so I want to know if I’m wrong! 

We went to two more sales after this, both in Dearborn. This is the only thing I came away with: 

And I’ll let Erin tell you more about the sales. But before she does that, here’s another picture of that adorable baby. Spoiler alert: Still super cute. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I had no clue that this day of sale-ing would be our last for a few weeks.  I thought for sure we had at least one more week of sales before Everett came.  Alas, my water broke a week early and the rest is history.

Somehow I managed to keep it a secret from Sarah that I actually knew the lady whose house the first sale was held at.  She is friends with my 85 year old neighbor and recently moved into assisted living.  Sarah’s sleuthing skills were right on–the lady was in a theatre group.  Zach and I actually go to their plays every few months.

I was in the basement of this sale and saw this:

A pencil sharpener.  Nothing fancy about that.  Except there was a group of three teenage girls walking around and when they saw this pencil sharpener, one of them said, “Was this a school?  It must have been a school down here.”

This totally blew my mind.  Younger generations are apparently only familiar with pencil sharpeners in school settings, so these girls automatically assumed this must have been some sort of educational facility.  Except that it looked like a totally normal basement and was clearly NOT a school.  So insane.

Also totally fascinating was why Sarah didn’t buy this:

First of all, she is OBSESSED with llamas.  And secondly, she loves her some giant wall decor, like that fabric heart thing above.

I bought a Seiko automatic watch at this sale because they usually sell for good money on ebay.  This one is in really rough shape though, but for $4 I figured what the hell.  Zach is a mega watch collector and said that some guys like beat up watches because it gives them a “story.”

At the second sale, I immediately zeroed in on this baseball bank.  I knew Timmy would want it.  It was priced around $30 though, which I knew was crazy.  I decided the best plan would be to call Timmy on my phone where I knew the guy running the sale would hear me.  By hearing my side of the conversation, I hoped the guy would realize that I really wanted to buy this thing, but also that the price was of great concern.

Sure enough, the guy heard me describing the bank to my dad and then also heard my reaction to my dad obviously saying the price was too high.  I acted kind of disappointed and like I was going to put the bank back.  The guy running the sale said, “That’s worth $200 on ebay you know.”  I was super polite but also wanted to be like, “UM NO WAY JOSE.”  He ended up selling it to me for $20, so I was happily victorious.  

At one of the last sales we visited, I picked up this giant stuffed monkey.  He’s from Howdy Doody or something like that.  I forget his name.  He was $15 but I am hoping he will sell for more on ebay because he is gigantic.  Smaller ones seemed to sell for $30-$60.  

I made the mistake of seating this guy at my dining room table when I got home from sale-ing.  In the night I got up to drink some water and he scared the sh*t out of me in the dark.  I thought a really ugly toddler broke into my house and was pulling a Goldilocks or something.

Anyway, I can’t make any promises but I am hoping to take a break tomorrow or Friday from raising a tiny human and instead hit a few sales.  Sarah is doing a great job keeping up the blog, but I am hoping to still pull my weight.  Wish me luck!

Remember a few weeks ago, when I posted that image of that giant collection of VHS tapes at an “antique” sale"?… 

Well, that same week I left it up to Erin to find the sales we would be attending, and the first one she took me to was THAT EXACT HOUSE. When we pulled up, I recognized the company’s sign and started dying laughing. I typically avoid this company’s sales because they overprice everything and it’s usually a giant pile of garbage. We had some luck at their sales when they first started up, but since then, they’ve been pretty bad.

So anyway, apparently some of the pictures of this sale “looked good” to Erin, which is why we ended up there. Here is a sampling of the selection of wonderful goods available. 

(Though this would have been a great gift for Erin, I passed on it.) 

I honestly can’t think of anything grosser than used men’s tighty whities. It’s even grosser than smelly snake skin. 

The selection of gross dolls was off the chain. Here’s the freakiest. Best thing is that Erin and I BOTH took a picture of this creep. 

He has fangs, yellow eyes, and a soul-sucking stare. HELP. 

$360? Excuse me? Made of gold? 

Alright, so here you go. I took one look at this slipper and shouted, “Free Willy!” Erin and I were dying when we realized it said Fred Willey. Also, you must have some serious slipper thievery happening in your hood if you have to write your name in dry erase marker on your footwear. 

Turns out there was one lone collector who hit a jackpot here–so many VHS tapes to choose from!

I did find one cool thing at this sale–a single vintage Minnetonka boot. I looked everywhere for its mate and came up empty handed. WTF? Erin bought a woven purse that had no price tag. When she went to check out, the man looked at it and said, “Oh the woman who lived here traveled all over the southwest… she probably got this at an Indian reservation. The freakin’ purse had a manufacturer’s tag inside and Erin was super polite while pointing it out. She got the purse for $4. 

Next up on our agenda was a sale in Redford that looked pretty good. We didn’t end up with much, but at least there were more cool things to look at. 

I loved this lamp, wig, hat combo. 

That is some old-ass peanut butter. 

I don’t know what this thing was but it sure looked cool. 

Holy moly! Anyone need some lightbulbs? 

In the end, I left with some vintage cards and wrapping paper, and Erin left with a handheld steam cleaner that ended up not working very well. Here is some of the wrapping paper–pretty cute. 

When we got back to their house, I made Zach take a picture of Erin and I with that bun still in the oven. I had panicked a few days prior because I realized that the whole time she’s been pregnant, I never had my picture taken with her and her giant belly.

She wasn’t kidding! Good thing we captured this when we did, because that little boy wasted no time arriving! Two weeks later: 

-Sarah

I mentioned last week that when I went to the Chelsea Antiques Market a few weekends ago, there were many things to see that were very hard to resist. Here are a few of my faves. 

Frankly, I don’t understand this terrifying plate, who would want it, or where it came from. I hated it so much–it just made me feel icky inside. Clowns are already scary enough but this one has a SAW in his doctor bag, a hammer in his hand, and golf clubs for no reason. WTF? 

Sarah and I were dying when we saw that someone had, with a red sharpie, made poor Big Boy’s eyes super bloodshot. Either that or he smoked some powerful ganja. 

I enjoyed that this seller didn’t know for sure whether a) the doll was very old or b) it was even a doll at all! 

I hope the Ultimate Punk finds this vase, because it was especially made for him/her. 

I call this masterpiece Terrifying Zombified Ceramic Hunter Boy, with Dog.

Some special anniversary cigs. 

NUDE LOVERS.

Ok, I saved my favorite for last. Every time I look at this picture, I LOL. 

This is what Erin looked like when the nurses told her it was time to push. 

-Sarah

Oh my gosh. I know it will be hard to top Everett’s debut on the blog, but we have to keep things rolling here. Right?…

OK, FINE… I’ll show you ONE more picture of him… 

Squeeeeeee!!!!! 

Ok, back to our adventures in Grass Lake a few weeks ago. So, after Sarah and I left The Copper Nail, we decided to drive to nearby Chelsea and hit up the Chelsea Antique and Collectibles Mall. I tend to forget that antique malls are places where I might find cute things, so I was glad to have the opportunity. There were actually a lot of cool things at this place, one of which I already blogged about–my adorable pose dolls! Here are some other cool booths & things: 

Below you’ll see a little Cairn Terrier figurine that Sarah spotted. She has a Cairn Terrier so she was interested in this little guy but he was priced outrageously. I just looked online and it seems these are fairly abundant on eBay, so Sarah–go get one! 

Even though this sign includes improper punctuation, I loved it. There were a stack of these small signs for sale but again, they were priced $15 or $20 each, which just seemed to steep for a piece of paper. 

I LOVED this baby quilt but it was also priced a little high and even though I’ve bought things for my non-existent baby in the past, I couldn’t really bring myself to do it here, but now I sort of regret it. 

I really wanted this book but figured I could find it cheaper online. I think it was marked $12. Turns out I was wrong about this one! The cheapest one on Amazon used is $23. Whomp whomp. 

If you look close at the prices, you can see this is a baller collection of mason jars. I was just taking note the other day of the fact that hipsters enjoy drinking things out of mason jars, so maybe this is where you go to get a jar that is different from other hipsters’ jars. 

Sarah was interested in learning more about old things and what draws me to specific items. I gave her a perfect example of something that is tempting to buy (cute, cheap, different)… 

….but that I need to start training myself not to purchase. In this case I did ultimately decided that I did not need to purchase a miniature figurine of a beagle wearing a dress, playing a harp. You’re welcome, Adam. 

There were lots of funny things to see here, but I’ll save that for a rainy day. But before I go, you want to know what I came away with, right?!

I couldn’t resist this mug–since I love hounds and love coffee. The sexist rating scale on the side sealed the deal. 

I got this little piglet for my miniature shelves. He’s cute and weird. 

I also got another vintage baby blanket but I forgot to take a picture of it. 

Oh I forgot to mention the best part about this place–it’s connected to a bowling alley!

Fun here for SURE! 

-Sarah