Weekend Finds

Good morning!

I have to say, whereas I haven't been finding a trunkful of stuff on the weekends (and thank GOD, seeing as there is very little available space left in this hoarder house), I will say that the things that made it into the car to come back home with me were pretty impressive the last two weekends! I think the heatwave weekend before last, and the rain this weekend, scared off all the customers of similar interest! No one was even trying to grab these things out of my hand, which is just shocking to me. Check out what I got:

1) WWII/1940's charm bracelet:
I found this at the Southern Sisters sale last weekend in Hendersonville, just past Lowes in one of those huge subdivisions. I always get a little wary when the deceased has already moved to retirement or a newer house, as you all know how much downsizing you have to do to move into a smaller space. And I like the junk someone's hung onto for a million years, which tends to be in an upper cupboard, in a house they've lived in since the fifties'. At any rate, this sale was in the finished basement of a house out there and I have to say, there wasn't much but what they were was, was great!

I've been looking for a WWII charm bracelet ever since I was practically struck down with jealousy over Janey at Atomic Redhead's wartime sweetheart jewelry collection-- envy of this intensity level meant that someday, somewhere, I just had to find something like it. And here it was, nestled in a little white box around a lot of Christmas decor and department store jewelry from the nineties'. My dad (no dilettante-ish WWII enthusiast here, but rather a should-be-a-professor-on-the-subject fanatic) says that the markings on the heart locket tell you that her boyfriend/husband/cutie was a trainee in the Air force officer program. And I say that the matched ivory pocketknife charm (!!) means that she will cut you if you cross her. Just kidding. But can you believe?!

WE LOVE IT. WE COULD NOT LOVE IT MORE.

Hiwassee College is a two-year Methodist liberal arts college in Madisonville, TN.

2) 1961 prom dress covered in real wild bird (!!) feathers:
I couldn't get a very good shot of this because a) I hadn't had my coffee yet and b) the dress was too small to fit either myself or my mannequin, but let's get a look at this satin and WILD BIRD FEATHERS prom dress:

One of the women at the sale (a sight more petite than myself, naturally) said her mother had made this dress for her and she herself had worn it to prom in 1961. All I can say is, I was in love from the second I saw it. I don't care that it isn't wearable by me, I just wanted exclusive ownership of this knockout of a dress. The sheath of the dress is trimmed at the bodice with feathers, and then again in the back with two long panels of sherbet colored satin lined in MORE FEATHERS.

I present to you, the only possible answer to "what do you wear on a date with Todd Rundgren in the early 70's":

You can't tell by my "leaves something to be desired" photography, but the feathers are in tip top shape. Yay!

3) 1920's Cameras
I don't think I've shared the true extent of it on the blog before, but I have a major vintage camera addiction. In spite of mainly using Bab's iPhone to take 99% of my daily photos, I have around sixty different models of cameras and accessories, ranging from the 1910's to the late sixties', and I try to stop buying...and I can't. Example, these two twenties' model cameras, one from Agfa and one from Kodak, were less than $10 apiece. APIECE. I had actually put them down and then came back for them. Fie. Fie on that resolution to stop snatching up cameras. Because look at how cool these are!

4) Barbie

I was at a Patterson sale weekend before last and I found these Barbie boxes and two dolls in the most pleasantly air conditioned house I've ever been in. No joke! Located practically adjacent to Edwin Warner Park golf course, the house was going to be demolished to put up two houses on the same lot, and I was a little sad because jeez louise, outside of a museum where the air HAS to be conditioned, I don't think I've ever been so pleasantly cool in my life! I felt like a climate controlled piece of paper at the Smithsonian. And during a record heatwave, no less! Fixtures were for sale, which I thought was neat for retro remodelers as everything in the house was top of the line late fifties'-- the cabinets had three built-in cutting boards (yes, I counted), a three tiered lazy Susan in one of the corner cabinets, and beige, black and chrome colored appliances. I zeroed in on these in one of the bedrooms, and was just about flabbergasted that the cases, in totally decent if not mint condition, were ridiculously cheap. And it was half off day! I ended up getting the cases, two dresses, a Midge doll AND a Skipper (I think?) doll for $15 total. RIDIC. Check out maybe-Skipper's original swimsuit and definitely-Midge's handsewn dresses:

I in no way need more children's toys, but for the condition and the price, I could not refuse. I'm thinking of taking these and the tin stove/refrigerator combo from Wolverine Toy Co and packing them in a trunk as a kind of "hope chest" for my future kids. What do you think about having kids play with super-old toys? Outside of the lead poisoning/rusty edges factor, is it bad to let something that's managed to survive sixty years suffer at the hands of a four year old? Or isn't that what's meant to happen to it in the first place. I can't decide.

Did you find anything just mindblowing this weekend? I'm almost loathe to go out this coming weekend, as what can compare to the last two weekend's hauls? Yet...what if my lucky streak is still running! What if there's yet more gold in them thar hills? Only time will tell! :)

Gotta get cracking on the homework...only three weeks of summer classes left! I can do it, right?! See you tomorrow!