Vintage Destination - The Longest Yard Sale

One of my favorite annual traditions is the Longest Yard Sale in the World. Someone in Tennessee devised this genius idea to encourage more tourism to the area, and got everyone along little Route 127 to hold garage sales and antique fairs on the first weekend in August. Now the route stretches from Alabama to Michigan, and is full of everything from novice sellers just cleaning out their attics to big barn sales to fields full of antique dealers.

For four days straight, I rummaged and haggled and poured over old treasures, and came back with several suitcases full and even more photos:

One of my favorite old finds of the trip was a viewmaster projector. Mine came pristine and perfect in its box, with a handwritten note by the previous owner:

I'm feeling the same way about many of the treasures I brought home. I'll probably be writing the same thing on many of them.

Knowing What You Gots

Vintage shopping is a variable thing. Sometimes you are on the hunt for something specific, and other times you just let yourself be led. A few years back Bex and I spent some time poking around at flea markets and basement museum shops in Moscow. We fell in love with the cold war space art, but couldn't afford any of the big pieces. I stumbled on several strips (about 8 inches long, each image is about 2 inches by 1.5 inches wide) of cosmonaut propaganda. They've been hanging above my monitor at work for two years now. And then!(my favorite of the lot, the nobel dog-mo-nauts)

Yesterday I was purusing the blog world (apologies, since I can't figure out where I saw this), but I stumbled on maraid's match box label set on flickr. What did my wondering eyes see? In addition to some truly beautiful soviet era art, I saw my little images! Mystery solved, I have inadvertently bought unused match book labels. Even better maraid has lots of great notes and info on each label--- their flickr site is a treasure trove.
If you want to get in on this action, and don't want to fly to Mother Russia, you can do what maraid did-- hit this ebay search. And happy surfing-- I could spend hours on that flickr site!

Locksmithing: salvage your locked vintage suitcase

My friend Collin found this little green suitcase on the street yesterday and gave it to me. It was in perfect condition - a lovely green tweed - and the only problem was the pesky three-number combination was locked.


Rendered useless? Not so! Who would have known, but the boy named Derek had some lock-picking experience, and was able to figure out the combination without using force or trying all 64,000 possible combination to find out. He just pushed on the lock as if he were going to open it, and then wiggled each number until it felt loose. Voila! He figured out the combination.

As it turns out, there are lots of video tips online to figure out how to how to open a combination lock, so if you find the perfect vintage luggage, don't let a little secret combination stand in your way!

The best news? The inside of my suitcase was pristine, after having been locked away for who knows how many years!

Eagle Eye

I've already gone into how much I like Estate Sales, and am on the mailing list for several Bay Area companies to keep me in the second-hand scavenging loop. One of the lists always sends photos of the sales so that you can get excited about the stuff that they are selling before you get there. Problem is, half the time it backfires because the pictures are usually sub-par, and usually look mostly full of junk.

Like last weeks? There were TEN pages of photos like this:

Blech. Precious plush. Booooring.

Wires. Things with wires sticking out of them. Boring.

Yawn. Boring.

Argh. Boooooring.

This picture did peak my interest a little ... because seriously - that carpet and that couch? Together? Living in harmony in the same room? This means these people might have some other tricks up their sleeves.

And then the VERY last picture, on the VERY last page...do you see what I see, poking up out of all that other junk? A red roundie!

I memorized the look of the outdoor location, made sure I showed up right when the doors opened, bee-lined for the backyard, and proudly waltzed out with a new mint red round suitcase.

Estate Sale success!

Happy Monday - Here's Looking at You

Monday morning. Bleh, right?

Now imagine sipping your morning coffee (or hot chocolate. or herbal tea. or whatever your beverage of choice might be) out of this mug that I found at the thrift store over the weekend. Maybe you feel a little ceramic love coming your way:

And then, as you drain the cup ...

Here's lookin' at you.