Dig This Treasure!

Two weekends ago, I went out to Portland for a short visit while Adam was at a conference there. It was my first time in Portland and it was very overwhelming. So many cool things to do/see/eat/buy! Unsurprisingly, I found lots of very cool vintage and antique shops, but one with some of the coolest items that I saw was Hoodoo Antiques. 

Most of the stuff in this tiny store was of the large/furniture/industrial variety, but there were some cool smaller items as well. 

I really liked these Winslow Health vintage educational posters made by Denoyer-Geppert. They were out of my price range–between $200 and $275, but I felt like that was reasonable for the condition they were in. It turns out that’s actually a little high… Oh well! They were still super cool. 

I talked to the guy who runs the shop and he told me that this “red” sign is the only thing that remains from an old grocery store (I think!) … I can’t remember exactly what he told me but damn that sign is cool. It was huge! 

I loved these old elementary school handwriting signs. 

In this picture with the scary alligator, you can sort of get a glimpse of the only thing I bought here–an old Anri mechanical cork. It’s in the lower right of the picture and looks sort of like this:

I have another mechanical Anri cork that my mom unearthed at my grandma’s before she passed away last spring. The guy only charged me $20, which seemed fair. The only other thing I was interested in was this squirrel nutcracker. 

I didn’t even ask about the price because it was so heavy (oh yeah, what was up with nothing being priced in this store?!), there was no way I was carrying that back home on an airplane. And it turns out they’re pretty easy to find on eBay. 

Stay tuned for more cool finds from Portland! 

-Sarah

Last week, Erin wrote about that awesome folk art sale we went to twice, and I wrote about one find that ended up making me some serious money. But I forgot to tell you all about the cool things that I bought to keep!

The first day we went there, I was really overwhelmed because things were priced on the high side and there were so many things I wanted. I came away with two dog carvings. Erin spotted both of them for me. I love this one so much:

Looks like a Brittany Spaniel, and that’s close enough to a beagle for me!

The other dog statue I think Erin also found, and it’s mechanical:

When you turn the crank, the dogs mouth opens and closes, and his tail spins. Adam loves anything mechanical in nature, so I thought he might like it but I was unsure of the face. He ended up loving it, so score for me!

I also bought this two-drawer box. I’m not sure how old it is but I really like it and will probably put it in my living room and keep junk in it.

I’m sure Adam is thrilled to hear that.

On the day we went back, I mainly bought stuff to resell, and once I saw that the woman there was making deals, I stepped up my game. I came away with a poster I saw on the first day that I thought was funny.

I also bought this doll that was priced $95, but sold to me for $30.

I also bought these adorable wool dolls to resell. Here’s a picture that I took of them cuddling.

Besides the Tigers slides that I sold, the case of slides I purchased also had a ton of other slides in it, and I sold the case and slides for $150. I separated the slides into groups by theme—adults, kids, cars, etc. So that was my most fruitful purchase. If you ever see a bunch of those slides for cheap, snatch ‘em up! People collect them. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the group.

Love me some kids being weirdos.

Finally, Adam dropped some major bones at this sale. But we’ll save his find for another day, because it was really unique and interesting!

-Sarah