Terrified Muppet

I didn't realize it when I took the photo, but poor Elmo is standing right behind this disturbing Chucky doll. Do you think that, when nobody is around, Chucky tortures his red furry neighbor? Do you think Elmo is trying to tell me something by sneaking into the photo? He certainly appears to be scared stiff.

And Chucky looks pretty pleased with his psychotic self.

He can be yours for only $5! Yes, that dollar amount seems to be a popular price for thrift stores this week.

Four ugly things

Two squat knick-knacks with glittery eyes, one giant orange chip tray (or something), and a vase. Enjoy.

Funny, the more I look at that vase the less ugly it appears to me. I think I could make it work in the right room with the right flowers. Maybe in a mid-century Polynesian-themed tiki room. Perhaps I'm getting Thrift Store Stockholm Syndrome.

Saucy franks

I am always delighted when I find old cookbooks that have color pictures or recipes that make me laugh. This 1968 Better Homes & Gardens Casserole Cook Book has both.

First up is a yummy little dish called Hamburger Pie:

Sounds good, right? Beef, onion, canned green beans, canned tomato soup, a dash of salt and pepper, and fake mashed potatoes. I just don't think it gets any better, or better-tasting, than that. And this is what it looks like:

Remember you can click to enlarge the photos, then click again for a really big version!

Next up is the Chili Con Weine. I just love that name.

And last, two more weenie recipes. Wiener Bean Pot with 2 pounds of pork and beans, and my favorite, Saucy Franks with bacon and pineapple juice.

Blood, Sweat & Tears of laughter

I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned the neo-Colonial decorating trend from last century. I guess this little spinning wheel boudoir lamp would have gone in a Colonial-themed bedroom. The base is actually kind of dull, with that beige color and lack of detail. But the shade, with its stiff wave design, brown and yellow print, lace trim, pinned-on grosgrain ribbon, and rigid openwork top is pretty interesting. Ugly, goofy, and laughable as well.

And now I have this song stuck in my head:

Monkey stole the cookie from the cookie jar

I always try to avoid lifting the lids on any used kitchen items I find at thrifts. On this same trip I found a cool vintage cheese tray with a small glass-covered section in the center for the cheese. Because I was distracted by the awesomeness of the mid-century design, I went ahead and picked up the little glass dome. Oh my! I almost gagged when the smell hit my nose. I dropped the glass back on the center and that cheese tray became dead to me.

So, yeah. As long as I am in my right mind I never open breadboxes, mason jars, countertop canisters, cookie jars, or any other used food storage container. Thus, I did not take the hat off this ugly sailor monkey to find out if it was full of yummy chocolate chip cookies. Sorry!

A throne for Poseidon

Gee, this would go well with the toiletbrush I posted yesterday. And yes, it is what you think it is: a clear toilet seat embedded with shells, starfish, and some other junk. It was not in packaging. It may have been used but there was no way in hell I was bending down to touch a potentially used toilet seat to find out. I probably should disinfect my shoe, which I used to position the seat for the photo, just to be sure.

The thrift is asking $4.99 for this monstrosity. The date on the sticker indicates that it had only come in two days previously, so you better hurry if you want to make it yours.

Conquering the home decor shelf

I wonder if conquistadors will become a theme for my thrift shop trawling.

Holland is the @!%$

When I go on vacation and am browsing tourist gift shops to find something to commemorate my trip, I usually gravitate towards the postcards or books. I tend to skip the knick-knack and home decor areas of the store so maybe I am out of the loop and the best way to remember my trip would be to purchase a toilet bowl scrub brush with painted ceramic holder. Because they are out there.

I mean, it really is the best way to pay tribute to a place as nice as Holland Harbor. And it can be all yours, USED, for only $5.05 at my local VoA!

(I spent about 27 minutes washing my hands after touching this thing just enough to turn it around for the photo.)

Permanent press

Do you have so much laundry to press that you find it necessary to invest in an iron the size of an oven/stove combo? Because I can tell you where to find one. The Ironrite was made in the Detroit area and is seriously cool. Here is an entire website devoted to the Ironrite that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the machine.

Colaps-able shelevin younits

Please don't put heavy items on the glass shelves. The shelves will collapse if you do so.

Still a little left

This bottle of yummy pink Humidi-TREAT was nearly empty. The lid was off and I expected to see a fresh spill nearby but the shelves were dry and clear of pools of pink humidifier treatment. Maybe this stuff is really expensive and that little bit left in the bottom is worth the 90 cents they were asking.

Is it sad that my first thought upon seeing that there was no spill was that a peckish customer has wandered by, saw the TREAT portion of the product name, and had a snack?

Glue inflation

The price of glue has gone way up. Especially the price of sticky, half-empty bottles of glue at Salvation Army thrifts. The charity would like someone to pay 99 cents for this sticky, half-empty bottle of glue. That faded white sticker near the top right? You know, the one that shows the original price paid? It says 25 cents. Man, times are tough.

(There was a child's name written on the front, which, through the awesome power of Photoshop, I was able to black out.)

Pickled herring of the gods

I love to browse old cookbooks at thrift shops. One of my favorite finds, from Goodwill, is a 1968 Time-Life volume called The Cooking of Scandinavia. This is the cover:

Looks delicious, right? There are many full-color photos of wonderful Scandinavian cuisine, including a recently dead whole fish with a purdy purple and yellow flower necklace. Those jaws look pretty fierce:

This two-page spread features 12 Danish sandwiches including such gems as pickled herring with onion rings, lettuce, and a sliver of tomato on rye bread, roast pork with prunes and an orange curl on rye, tiny shrimp with lettuce and lemon on white bread, liver paste with mushrooms, bacon, and lettuce on rye, curried herring and macaroni salad with egg whites and yolks on rye, and Danish Blue cheese with a raw egg yolk encircled by an onion ring on white.

Here is a lovely photo of bright red crayfish on a background of black netting:

Meat plate from the Smorgasbord (this should be your third plate after your herring plate and your fish plate--yes, herring is so vital that it warrants its own [first!] course):

And, finally, this photo shows four preparations of eel (all are blurry because the camera is focused on the bottle of aquavit--and who can blame the photographer for not wanting to focus on a slimy water snake?)

Trendy toadstool trivet

When I was a kid, I remember seeing the odd mushroom-themed interior design decorative piece. Usually they were in the kitchen and I recall mushroom-shaped salt and pepper shakers, metal canisters with images of mushrooms, and little mushroom knick-knacks and wall decorations. The colors of the mushrooms were usually warm browns, oranges, yellows and greens, and fit in perfectly with the dark brown/avocado green/harvest gold late 60's-70's kitchen colors.

This heavy ceramic and cast iron trivet I found at Goodwill has a muted blue tint on the iron, but would otherwise fit nicely in a 70's vintage kitchen. There are only two ways it could be better: if there was a brown owl nibbling at one of the 'shrooms and the back had a Home Interiors sticker.

Speaking of Home Interiors and owls, I wonder if my mother still has these two hanging around in a box somewhere? They used to sit on the end table next to the couch.

(Apologies to the eBay seller, Juanabsbarn, for stealing her photo. She has some fun stuff you should check out.)

I buried Paul

I am such a sucker for vintage graphics that I will buy things that I don't need just so that I can have the box or packaging. I especially like images of food. So when I found this vintage Wm Rogers Slice 'n Serve Set at the Salvation Army I had to bring it home. The blurb on the front claims this set is ideal for serving cranberries, sliced pineapple, cucumbers, tomatoes, and many other appetizers. Since we don't eat any of the foods specifically listed we'll have to serve "many other appetizers" in this silver-plated dish.

The cover shows cranberry sauce, raw tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, green peppers, carrot sticks, bright green olives with bright red pimentos, celery sticks stuffed with...something, and one other appetizer that I cannot identify. It looks like a big block of soft cheese surrounded by some sort of brown or red sauce or jelly. As is often the case with vintage food graphics, the colors are off just enough to make everything look unappetizing.

Super effective

My kid spotted this big, fat Pikachu at Volunteers of America. It still had the original hangtag and was only $1.99. It now sits right next to her bed so she can see it every morning when she wakes up and every night as she falls asleep.

Zestfully priced

The one thrift store sighting that inspired me to start this blog was one that I did not get a photo of so you'll just have to take my word for it. The product was one bar of Irish Spring soap, still in the box. There were actually two boxes, in different areas of the section. They looked like this:

The boxes were a little worse for wear, with some water damage and discoloration. And plastered onto to each little box was a sticker with the Goodwill logo and a barcode for easy scanning at the checkout. The price printed on each sticker ($2.99) made me do a double-take and hunt down my sister so that I could show her. Yes, Goodwill was asking $2.99 for a box of soap that you can get in an 8-pack for $4.13 at Meijer. At the same store I found a pretty vintage 50's skirt covered with embroidery and rhinestones for only $3.29.

Creepy family portrait

I love love love old American folk art, particularly portraits. There is always something "off" about them; the proportions are wrong, the perspective is flat, or the features are creepy.

I spotted this pair of 8x6" portraits on the same day, and at the same shop, as Big Al. The print is on thin paper adhered to a chunk of wood. The edges were deliberately worn down to make the pieces look older. I have several interior design books from the 50's and 60's and this set would have fit perfectly in a Colonial Revival room, complete with copper pots, Windsor armchairs and a spinning wheel. 

My favorite part is the dog underneath the father's chair. A very un-dog-like face. (Click on the photos to enlarge them, then click again for a really BIG version.)

(Incidentally, when I first saw these my mind went straight to an episode of my favorite television show Supernatural. The ghost-slaying brothers are hunting a killer who pops out of an old family portrait painting. Here's a short clip of them realizing that, even though they burned the painting, the spirit was too strong and the art reappears. The portrait looks like this:

I brought the little pictures home. The first thing my husband said was, "Holy shit. One of those kids is going to kill us in the middle of the night." I am pleased to say that, even though the plaques hang on the wall in the living room, we have not yet had our throats cut by an evil ghost child.)

Lonely in your thrift store

Hurry! If you act quickly you can "Save a Prayer Patrick Nagel Poster From the Thrift Store."

(Is there anyone who doesn't start humming "Rio" when they see a Nagel?)

Make healthier

I never cook anything in the microwave. I might re-heat leftovers, boil a cup of water, or melt butter in it, but I never actually cook anything. This product, the Microwave French Fries Maker, might make wonderfully crisp and tasty fries to give McDonald's a run for its money, I don't know. I wasn't about to fork over the money to find out.

Since I have never used this device I can only judge it based on its design. The description at Amazon claims the diameter of the tray is 8" and I'd say the box was a good 2" thick. It looks awkward. I can't imagine taking the time to put every individual french fry into a little slot. I also can't imagine having to clean out the four little condiment squares if the dish was not washed immediately.

I did laugh at a few of the bullet points on the bottom left-hand side of the box. "Make healthier"? I think they could have worded that more betterer. And one of my pet peeves is the misuse of "less" when it should be "fewer" so I wanted to scratch out "less calories" and change it to "fewer calories". I get the same urge at a grocery store if the express lane has a "12 items or less" sign. (My grammar is far from perfect but that doesn't stop me from getting sanctimonious about the few mistakes that irritate me.)

One more point: there were two of these, one on top of the other, on the shelf. I wonder if, somehow, these items came from two separate people and ended up being donated to the same thrift chain at around the same time. I don't know why I wonder that, I just do.