Friday, April 30, 2010

Friday's Funtastic Finds

For a change, we are starting off with something GOOD!! I know that it's almost impossible to believe, but we have our reasons. We need to balance our shopping karma; if we don't show some nice things, we may come back as dung beetles in our next lives.



The crab apple trees in the parking lot are blooming their hearts out! This is even more amazing when you consider how they were rudely snowed on just yesterday. The lines of trees, all a mass of white, fragrant flowers, are so beautiful! See, we can appreciate beauty when we see it!

So much for karmic maintenance. The next item is so awful that my camera would not focus on it, probably in self-defense. Sorry for the blurry pics. If it's there next week, HA HA, we can take a pic with Kathy's superior camera. I'm sure that you can tell a little something about this even through the blur.



The idea of a desk clock with a lizard on it is basically cool with me. What makes this a "fail" item is the ugly gold leaf the lizard is perched upon. The two together are just ghastly, which is hard to tell from these crappy pictures! The one good thing about it is its size, small, less visual assault that way.

I think we are on a vacation rampage lately. We keep finding weird chotskies that people drag home from vacation. If I were a recipient of such a gift, my thought would be, "I wish you would have spent the money on another drink at that overpriced beach bar". It's never a surprise that these items show up at thrift stores and garage sales.



Ok, is it some sort of mask maybe, or a local god... hmmm? BUT it is made of shells as you can clearly see in the second picture. My question is, what did that shell ever do to you?

I remember this next decorative item being popular in the 1970's, or around there. They have made periodic return performances from time to time, but this example was never very good.



It's huge for a start. The red ribbon board behind and to the right is 25.5 inches tall, so this ship is around 3 feet! As if that weren't bad enough, it's flimsy and cheap. If it were really brass, you would need a couple of well placed screws in the wall to hang it. I suspect a thumbtack would be adequate for this, if you were sure it's the finishing touch your living room needs. If this is the case, be sure and let us know, as I am positive it will still be available for purchase next week.

OMG we are going end with something relatively good; I can feel the yin and yang of our shopping souls re-balancing as I post this.

We both have fairly substantial brooch collections; we like pins. In each of our collections, there are pins that defy explanation. The best way I can put it, is, their presence has more to do with humor than goodness or quality. My weird pins are usually flowers, and Kathy's are cats or other animals. We found this prime example of a Kathy pin today.



When I asked her what she liked about it, she said, to the best of my recollection, "His feet are so cute!". I have to agree, he does have cute feet ;- ) In my defense, I believe the feet were the closer on this item. I am particularly fond of goofy animal pins, and the orange and pink on this fella just screams late 60's/70s. It also helped that he was half price ( $1.50) instead of full price which would have been just too much. It is also a signed piece ( I didn't know that at the time, so really, that is no excuse!) marked LG for Lind Gal jewelry.

Well, we will try to get a better picture of the lizard clock next week. Other than that problem, we had a super day at the thrift stores, followed by a bang-up lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant. Ah... Fridays are grand.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Friday Finds

Well, it's happened again. We had another bumper crop of humdingers! Some days are just like that. I never can tell if it is just our mood, or if there really are awful things that come out of the woodwork just to scare us! We walked in the door of our favorite thrift to be greeted with this object:


Perhaps individually, it might not have been so bad, but the whole sequined fruit, wax apple rose thing, and stripey basket just wasn't cutting it. Whoever decided fruit should be decked in sequins should have been shot BEFORE the idea caught on.


Next up is this:


Hubby's reaction was: " OMG what is it?" Well, frankly I am not sure anyone can answer that question. If you can, be sure and let us know. Really the kicker on this one was the tail, the brown tufty off the back. It sort of was the cherry on top. We laughed ourselves silly with this one. What possessed the first person that bought it? Drugs, alcohol, some sort of altered mental state, and a tropical vacation had to be involved. We KNOW why it was at the thrift store.


Next up, this lovely, plastic kitchen decor:


I shudder to think of the kitchen this graced, and must have for many years to be just showing up now. Maybe it would go with the fruit basket? I would accuse the same person, but they were at two separate thrift stores. Wouldn't a blank wall have been better? One of those framed dish towels? Oh, wait, some of those can be pretty horrendous too.

And for our last choice item:


He was about a foot tall, and the photo pretty accurately shows the colors. No really, if this was the only place I had to save my money for a rainy day, I would rather be broke! Maybe the person saving up for a rainy day used some of their funds to buy a new bank--now that would be a good investment.

We actually had a few more, but we will save those for "a rainy day"! Bye for now.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Friday Finds a Little Late

Well, this week we had a sick kid in tow, so we didn't spend a lot of time looking for the evil that lurks at our local thrifts. We did find a little number that will join the Holiday Review, so look for that later.

First up is a ... er... thingie. Honestly, I'm not sure what to call it.



It looks like it might have a base of basalt, but it's just some sort of plastic, petrified wood, resin, we just weren't sure. The boring, uninteresting, blah flowers are scattered all over it, and not in an artistic way. Another strike against this thing is its size, about 8-10 inches tall and maybe a foot long. Those aren't Hot Wheels visible in the picture, but some model cars that someone probably built. The only thing on it that was redeemable was the umbrella. It was really well made, very intricate on the inside, and appeared to be vintage, but not worth $5.99 and the effort it would take to wrestle it out of this ... thingie.

The next item could have been fun, except it failed in execution. I have a friend that talks frequently about monkeys. If I wanted to lose his friendship, all I would have to do is buy him this monkey.



I'm sorry, you need to see a close-up picture to get the full horror, and a better idea of its color and size:



For the last item, we couldn't resist. They hadn't been bought yet, so we moved them next to each other. These pictures had to belong to the same person; there couldn't be two people who thought "I have to hang this in my house", there just couldn't! At least we hope not!



After taking this picture, the following Peaches & Herb song kept running through my head:

Reunited, and it feels so good
Reunited, 'cause we understood
There's one perfect fit
And, sugar, this one is it
We both are so excited
'Cause we're reunited
Hey, hey

Well, that's all for this week's installment. As always, please let us know what you think of our "finds" or show us pictures of yours. Ugly, horrible what were they thinking (W.W.T.T.) finds, that is ALL we want to see pictures of. At least one of us is a respectable middle-aged lady. ;- )

Speak for yourself. I personally am a spring chicken! (How else do you explain those flaps of skin blowing in the breeze, I know.... don't go there!)








Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Friday, Sort of?

My partner in crime was ill this Friday, so I had to make the arduous trek by myself. I don't know if I just don't see as many awful things without help, or they are just funnier when we are together. I was about to give up hope when I spotted this lovely item:


I would swear it must have been owned by the person that donated the fat gold cherub last week, but surely not? Not sure if the full effect comes through, but imagine the cherubs in 3 dimensions and made of plaster. The frame is actually rather fantastic, but why ruin it with fat little angels?

Decided to hit one more store that is a little more out of the way, and was confronted with this item:


The really goofy thing about this lovely candle is, it is well over 2 feet tall, but only the small different colored gold piece on the top is available to burn. There was no wick in the rest of it. Personally, I feel that burning it might have been the best solution all the way around, and yet the option was not available! Oh well, when in doubt gild the heck out of it!

Collection Craziness--Spaghetti Poodles

I think everyone must have vague memories 0f these colorful ceramic poodles decorated with clay spaghetti to represent curly fur. Of course, these could be repressed memories; think back to visits to your grandmother's or that ancient great-aunt's house. The spaghetti poodles would be sitting on a mirror or an end table in the living room. Occasionally, they would decorate a boudoir or bathroom; btw, the word "decorate" is used loosely here.

In the 1950's and 60's there was a craze for poodles in general, which was carried over to the decorative arts, so to speak. I can remember being in love with the flocked poodles that adorned our bathroom wallpaper. I have a plastic poodle mirror, a carnival glass poodle powder box, vintage poodle jewelry, poodle linen dish towels, and poodle stuffed toys. Pretty much you name it, there was a poodle version. Hmm ... this could be a future post, all the poodle collectibles together, bwah-ha-ha. The post would probably have to have a warning label, so folks could save themselves ;-)

But to get back on track, today's post is just about spaghetti art ware poodles. Did you know that someone wrote a book about this subject? I know, what are the odds? I just ordered it from Amazon, here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0764305115?tag=openlibr-20.


I'll be sure to review it in a future post just in case you are considering buying it for your reference library.

Ok, back on track again, where was I? These ceramic poodles came in a variety of colors, poses, and with various "friends" attached to them with small chains. Those are my favorites--sort of vintage Japanese bondage, but innocent and decorative. I even have a collection of the "friends" chained together, but missing the main, most important poodle. I just group them with others of the same color; they are orphans after all and deserve our pity. As for why I collect them, well, that there is a key question.

Growing up, our family dog was a wonderful, playful, adorable poodle named Gigi (of course). Just throw all your preconceived notions about poodles right out the window. She was a great kid's dog who loved nothing better than to run along with your bike, or perhaps ride in the basket. So I'm predisposed to like poodles. But as decorations they have a fascination that has nothing to do with happy childhood memories. It could be that they are just such ridiculous, unlikely objects; honestly, why decorate with poodles of all things? Couple that with their little hand-painted faces showing a wide variety of expressions, and hey presto it's no longer a mystery why I collect them.

Enough nattering, here are some pics of my spaghetti poodles, their friends, and maybe a few innocent bystander poodles:



Just for fun you should look at some of the expressions on these poodles faces. They range from flirtatious, to foolish, to downright snarky! Plus you can see some of those orphans I was talking about; usually the poodles came with 2-3 "children".

Here is a picture the only blue spaghetti poodle set I've seen--of course I bought it!!



While these aren't technically spaghetti poodles, they are part of the chain gang, with their non-dog (some call them humans) attachments:



I can see that I'm getting really carried away here, but there are a few more types of spaghetti poodles that need to be documented for completeness:

Fashionable poodles

Look at those beautiful baby blues!

Two less typical variants:

Rhinestones Night light!

As you can see, there are spaghetti poodles to fit just about everyone's sensibility. I bet you're asking yourself right now why you don't collect them. Just so you know, they can be found at fine thrift stores or garage sales near you!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Friday Finds

Well, another week has come and gone. Pickings seemed a bit slim, but they made up for their scarceness by being particularly awful. One of our favorite games is trying to get inside people's heads, either when the thing was purchased, accepted as a gift, or found that perfect spot in the decor. I know, scary thoughts aren't they?

Take this first item:



It was well over two feet tall. Although it was missing its sword, or whatever, we still thought it worthy of a photo. Now, where do you hang it? The dungeon, the man cave?

This next item, we were hoping was a souvenir, but then again, surely there must have been something more appealing to have purchased? Pity the poor recipient that had to come up with something terrific to say about this: "Oh, you shouldn't have, no really!" My beloved husband has a theory about exactly what caused the female figure's surprised expression; you have to really zoom in to tell she has an expression. When looking at the figures, where is the male figure's left hand? 'Nuff said.


And lastly, don't feel like we forget about the fashion faux pas. Really, we know they happen, but we don't usually scan the racks of clothes, so unless something really awful jumps out at us, we don't always see it, but this last item was just too large to be ignored. EVER. Imagine wearing it! It would be most appropriate for a rodeo, or maybe a WWE event.



Well, don't forget to send in your awful finds, or feel free to post on ours!!