Thanksgiving

Here are some photos of my family from our Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house - a good time was had by all!:

Left to Right - my uncle, Bob - my Dad, Steve - Mrs. Stratton (my aunt's boyfriend's Mom), my Mom, Mary Jane - my aunt, Joyce (Bob's wife)

My cousin Debbie talking to my cousin Kevin, who wouldn't let me get a picture of his face!

See? Well, at least I tried. That's my cousin Taylor's boyfriend and little baby boy in the background, whatta cutie!

My little brother, Darrell.

My brother's girlfriend, Tonya, who also wouldn't look at the camera - what is it with these people?

Here is Tonya's daughter, Jordan, trying to hide from me.

I found one person who couldn't hide - my aunt Gayla, snoozin in the recliner! hehe

EVST Shop Of The Day $10 Holiday Gift Certificate Giveaway!

As part of the Etsy Vintage Street Team's "Walking In A Vintage Wonderland" Holiday promotion, we are giving away a $10 gift certificate to a team member's shop every day for the next 30 days!

Here's how it works:

Starting on Friday, November 28th, the Shop Of The Day will be posted every morning on the blog, and all who wish to enter have until 9pm EST that night to add a comment on the post linking to one of their favorite items from the Shop Of The Day. (Don't forget to also leave your email address in your comment, so we can send you your gift certificate if you win!)

After 9pm we will use a Random Number Generator to pick that day's winner, who will receive the $10 gift certificate good to use toward any order placed in the Shop Of The Day!

Here is the first post - run on over and enter!

And don't forget, just search the tag EtsyVintageTeam in the Vintage category to check out all the fab items that are available 24/7 from team members - vintage makes a great (dare I say, the best?) holiday gift!

Buying Vintage Christmas Gifts - Tonight at 9pm EST on the AuctionWally Show!

Walt and I had a great time recording this week's episode of the AuctionWally podcast - after a good dose of news about each of our various projects, we discussed buying vintage, antiques and collectibles for Christmas instead of mass produced, Walmart throw-away junk. :) Tune in at 9pm EST to have a listen, or you can listen anytime after that in the archives!

7 Random Things About Me

I've been enjoying the 7 Random Things About Me blog posts that have been popping up around the blogosphere the last few days, but hadn't thought about doing one myself until I read this over at Vintage Indie "Now it's your turn! Consider yourself tagged with 7 Random things about you."

Ok, fine... ;)

1. I've had the same haircut my entire life, with the exception of a couple of bad experiments in the 7th grade. I tried growing my bangs out a couple of years ago, but hated not recognizing myself in the mirror every day.

2. I love watching reality TV. It started with Survivor, which I was devoted to until they did the all-star special a few years ago, which must have felt like an "end" to me, because I haven't watched it since. I don't watch the ones on network TV, just the cable ones - Bravo, VH1 and E. A girl's gotta have standards, right?

3. I eat peanut butter and jelly every day, and could live on it if I had to, as long as I had some coffee to go with it...

4. I have PCOS - Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome - one of the leading causes of infertility among women. I don't currently take any prescription meds for it, as I would rather control it naturally, but I struggle with "being good" and doing the things I should do (diet, exercise, supplements) for my health.

5. I want to write a book someday.

6. I used to be Wiccan, but now am more of an independently spiritual neo-pagan, if there is such a thing.

7. This is me as a baby - I was a month early, weighed 4 pounds and nearly died. None of those things really explain the alien head, though...

There you have it - 7 random things about Mitzi. I'm going to do to you what Gab did to me though - tag, you're it!

Changes to The Vintage List...

The Vintage List directory is about 6 months old now - in that time, I've tried a few different ways of handling membership, none of which have really brought the results I am looking for. (I've never run a directory before, so I am very much in the middle of the trial and error stage!)

Anyway... My most recent change - making blog listings free - seems to have had an unintended side effect - I haven't had one shop listing added since then! I think people decide "Well, my blog links to my shop, I'll just get the free blog listing and I'll be all set"...

There's nothing wrong with that line of thinking, of course, but the directory is slowly but surely turning into a blog directory, rather than the shop directory I want it to be. The whole point of the directory is to allow buyers to be able to come to The Vintage List and shop! And we do have traffic coming to the site - keywords such as "vintage shop directory" and "list of vintage stores" are bringing people to us...

So, I've made a decision that I hate to make - I am going back to treating blog listings the way that I used to, where you get to list your blog for free when you buy a paid shop listing. I feel mean for doing it, but I just don't see any other solution!

I am also going to lower the price of a shop listing at the same time though - $15 for a regular listing instead of $25, and $30 for a featured listing instead of $60. That's still a one time fee, and it really is the lowest I can go... So, this is (hopefully) the last change I'll make!

I have high hopes that over time, The Vintage List will become the first stop for buyers who are looking to buy quality vintage from dedicated sellers who are committed to offering the best items with the best customer service! With so many shops popping up all over the web on multiple platforms and on individual websites - having one place for shoppers to go that leads them to the things they are looking for has never been more needed!

Featured Collectible - Vintage Syroco

I got all the vintage Syroco items that I found last weekend listed - talk about a collection! I've been poking around eBay looking at the wide variety of items this company - The Syracuse Ornamental Company - made over the years... I was really surprised at some of the amazing things I found... but more on that in a minute!

First I want to give you a bit of history, the best I found was on a corkscrew collector's website that had this nice little description:

"The SYRACUSE ORNAMENTAL COMPANY, also known as SYROCO, was founded in the late 1890's by an Austrian woodcarver named Adolph Holstein. Initially the company produced ornamental carvings for the embellishment of coffins and furniture as well as the interiors of fashionable homes. As demand increased, a molding technique was developed where Syroco could create perfect replicas of their original carvings. These molds also featured a wood grain within the mold, allowing for a more detailed aesthetic. The recipe of wood flour, waxes, and resins combined with compression molding created an inexpensive, but high quality product. As the 40's approached, demand for Syroco was waning with the new popularity of Danish Modern with its clean simple lines and less ornamentation on furniture. Novelty items became a new venture for the company; focusing on housewares, barware, and items for the smoker, as well as other offerings.

During the 1950's, Syroco started to change directions again. And, while novelty items still appear in their catalogs of the time. Highly stylized wall mirrors, sconces, and decorations became the company's focus.

In 1953, Syroco introduced a process for obtaining the finish on these seemingly gilted home accesories, called "metalgold"; a process, as the catalog states, "...wherein real metal is deposited on the object and toned and shaded by skilled hand operations."

Interesting! It certainly explains the huge variety of Syroco items, and how Syroco Wood - which isn't wood at all, but just looks like it - came into being.

So let's look at some of the great stuff that I found, starting with my own pieces that are up for auction right now:

Vintage Gold Syroco Diamond Starburst Clock - All the Syroco clocks are amazing, with that perfect mid-century modern style!

Vintage Gold Syroco Floral & Fleur De Lis Mirror - I just love that this mirror has a fleur de lis design! This one is actually pretty tame compared to some of the Syroco mirrors that are out there...

Set of 4 Diamond Floral Gold Syroco Wall Plaques - I showed you these before, wouldn't they go perfectly with the clock?!?

Vintage Gold Syroco Rooster Wall Plaques - These are really interesting - I think they look like they are fighting, what do you think?

Vintage Gold Syroco Framed Floral Prints - I showed you these before too, I'm really having a hard time parting with them, they are so pretty!

That's all that I have, but it certainly doesn't even scratch the surface of what is out there! Here are some of my favorites:

Vintage Syroco Tie Rack - Does it get any cooler than this? Maybe...

Vintage Syroco Wood Zodiac Clock - This doesn't have the Syroco label, but the seller and I agree that it is probably a Syroco Wood clock - look at the amazing detail! It's on sale right now too, making it that much more tempting...

Vintage Syroco Wood Bartender Bottle Opener - I guess the corkscrews and bottle openers are highly collectible, it will be interesting to see the final bid price on this guy!

Vintage Syroco Wood Viking Ship Wall Plaque - I mean who doesn't need a 40" long viking ship for there wall? Seriously.

Gold Syroco Wood Clock with Matching Sconces - These are so pretty, I love the candles they chose to use too!

Vintage Syroco Wood Bookends - I think I could be quite happy with just a collection of Syroco bookends, they are so cool!

Ok, I'll stop now, I think you get the idea - Syroco = Awesome. :)

Vintage Melmac & Ransburg on Flickr!

I decided to create 2 new groups on Flickr - Vintage Melmac & LustroWare, and Vintage Ransburg. I was surprised there weren't already groups for these, pretty much everything else in the world has its own Flickr group!

Lovely Duraware Melmac

Vintage Ransburg Cookie Jar - for sale in my eBay store, if you can't live with out it ;)

Estate sale goodies!

I figured since I teased you all with the ad for one of the estate sales that I went to this weekend, that I had better take pictures of what I bought there!

I actually went to 4 estate sales this weekend - I filled up my car twice - that's back seat *and* trunk! I was feeling the pressure to shop shop shop, since for 2 of the estate sale companies, it was their last sale of the season - no more til spring! And of course garage sales are pretty much over now as well, so the next few months will be hard going as far as finding inventory is concerned... I acted accordingly, like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter! ;)

Anyway, of course the stuff in the photos for the ad was all long gone when I got there, but I did still find some goods:

A couple of weeks ago I found and sold two Syroco Wood lots - a pair of fruit wall hangings and a pair of horse bookends. I hadn't found or sold Syroco before, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is pretty collectible.

Well, of course, this weekend I found a bunch of it, at this sale and another one - isn't it funny how that works? I don't know if it is just because now it is "on my radar" or what, but it does seem to happen like that pretty often...

The mirror and the two framed floral prints are both Syroco:

And I also got a set of 4 diamond shaped floral wall hangings:

I think I will do a Featured Collectible post about Syroco when I get these and the other pieces I bought this weekend listed, so stay tuned!

Ok, let's look at what else I got:

A set of milk glass hobnail candle holders, and a pair of Kissing Angel figurines from Japan.

A made in Japan angel figurine, and a green pottery vase that I think is Haeger, but the stamp on the bottom is impossible to make out. :(

A set of 4 white plastic snack trays with cool black coasters that are built right in!

A pair of ceramic Japan busts - a boy and a girl, a little Japan bird figurine, and I think my favorite find of the weekend:

A Japan musical jewelry box - you open the lid, the music starts and the little ballerina spins! Too adorable.

I also bought three sets of dishes - Studio Nova, Tulip Blue - Towne House, Regency - and Syracuse Old Ivory, Arcadia. Yes, my back hurt when I got home!

Estate sale this weekend...

... that has this tantalizing photo in the Craig's List ad:

And these even more tantalizing words in the description:

"china, old trunks, doll furniture , 1950's retro decorations and furniture through 1970's era"

The sad thing is this particular estate sale company tends to price high, so the earliest I can visit is on Saturday, when everything is 25% off, or Sunday, when it is 50% off. Their sales always start on Thursday night too, which means a lot of good stuff is long gone before I get there. :(

Selling Vintage Books Online - Tonight on the AuctionWally Show - 9pm EST

Tonight's episode of the show is all about selling vintage books online - I covered vintage cookbooks, and wrote a Flipping Vintage post over on The Vintage List blog to go with it...

We also discussed shipping a little bit, as most of you online sellers know, shipping is one of those necessary evils, and any help we can get in that area is much appreciated!

The show should be up at 9pm EST - be sure to check it out! :)

Attack of the vintage purses!

Seriously, I've got boxes and bags full of vintage purses here, and they have been attacking my feet and tripping me up every time I try to walk by them! It's dangerous being a vintage seller sometimes, let me tell ya...

Anyway, they are all up at auction right now, so hopefully some of them will be heading off to their new homes soon, and the others will be safely tucked into long term storage - out of the way of my poor feet!

Round Caprice Handbag

White Basket Purse With Twist Lucite Handles

Box Style Multi-Color Handbag

Wood Bead Babette Purse - Japan

Floral Applique Under Plastic Clutch Purse

Blue Floral Tapestry Clutch Purse

I decided to try having Boobs McGee, my half mannequin, model some of the other purses - I dressed her in a little mod dress that is for sale in my Etsy shop - I think she did a pretty good job!

JR Miami Carpetbag Purse

Black & White Striped 80's Leather Bag

80's Black Leather Hobo Purse with Fringe Pull

80's Black and White Leather Purse with Fringe Pull

1930's Gold Purse with Carved Plastic Frame

Fiesta Floral Needlepoint Purse

This isn't all of them - I told you I have a ton! - so if you want to check out the rest just head on over to my eBay store!