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

While we write up our most recent trip to Windsor, we thought we would leave you for the weekend with these hilarious Hard to Resist items that were put up on the auction block while we were there on Wednesday night. Here are some lovely oversized nutcrackers from Costco.

The items themselves, while not decorations that I would own personally, were not what was most hilarious. What was hilarious was that the auctioneer kept calling them “nutcrack soldiers” instead of nutcrackers! He seriously said it about 7 times. Erin and I were really LOLin’ in our seats over that one.

-Sarah

I’ve been saving these two priceless pics for a rainy day, so you’re in luck! 

It was difficult, but we managed to leave a sale without these two gems. We spotted both at the sale a few weeks ago where we fought for a few moments over a dirty miniature, and also where I saw replicas of Erin’s future children:

I know some would agree with this sentiment, but I’m definitely not one of them. In fact, my back door is always locked. Also, two dollars seems fairly steep. 

But this find is definitely even better: 

Look, I realize that this is the Mouse King from the Nutcracker (fun fact: Erin didn’t know this), but I don’t remember ever hearing a version of the tale where all the other mice crawl up his outfit. Am I wrong? 

Also, which is crazier–the Mouse King or Erin’s expression? 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: That Mouse King doesn’t just have mice crawling up his outfit.  Look closely, that rodent doll has all those little mice heads attached to his neck!  Like he has multiple mice heads on his body.  So gross.  The original price tag on that atrocity was $40 which is seriously so sad.

As for my expression, who knows.

Anyway, here is a hard to resist treasure that I am adding to the list.  It is from one of the barn sales last Friday.  

Box of old coconuts.  Anyone?