The Future of eBay Stores

I just did a quick post over on the Vintage List blog about the future of eBay stores - if you have one, click on over and check it out!

Pam from Retro Renovation - Monday @ 9pm EST on the AuctionWally Show

I am so excited for the show Monday night! The lovely and inspiring Pam from Retro Renovation is going to be our special guest - plus it is the first time that I will be doing an interview on the show! It's going to be a good one, especially if you are interested in vintage decorating and renovation and how to create a super successful blog... Pam is the go-to gal on all of those things and more!

We will be on live at 9pm EST, the chat room will be open, and I believe we are going to try to take calls during the last part of the show. And if you can't listen live, the show is archived shortly after it ends, so you can listen at any time!

It's Sale Time - Vintage Goodness Fall Clearance!

I am officially completely out of room in my basement - it's time for a sale! This week on eBay I have a ton of 99 cent auctions up - tons of great stuff including Franciscan Apple, Noritake, Avon Ruby Red, Valmont, and other dinnerware... books and cookbooks, whiskey decanters, Corning Ware and Pyrex... click on over to check it out!

My next project is to tackle my Etsy shop - I am going to create a $5 section for the entire month of October! I'll let you know when it's ready to go...

Exploding Pyrex - Safety Warning

This article was posted on the Etsy Vintage Street Team's forum, and I thought it was important to pass it along.

Corning sold the Pyrex name to a company called World Kitchen in 1998, and the type of glass they use is NOT the same type of glass Corning used - and there are hundreds of reports of pieces exploding in people's hands.

Read the article, and bring out your vintage Pyrex to cook with - this new stuff doesn't seem to be worth the risk!

Selling Paper Ephemera - AuctionWally Show Monday @ 9pm EST

Yes, you read that correctly - Walt and I are moving the live podcast to a new night and time - Mondays at 9pm EST. It is a time slot that fits our personal schedules better, plus we are hoping it fits all of yours too, so you can tune in to the show live!

This week's show is all about old paper ephemera - Walt is going to cover buying and selling for collectors, and I am going to talk about the ephemera market on Etsy, which is geared more toward artists and crafters.

I'm also excited to announce that next week's show - September 29th - our special guest will be the lovely Pam from Retro Renovation. She has an amazing blog, I can't wait to have her on the show!

Featured Collectible - Jens Quistgaard for Dansk

Every once in a while I have the good fortune to find Dansk items from famous mid-century modern designer Jens Quistgaard. The NY Times published a great article about him just after his death:

"Jens Quistgaard, a celebrated Danish industrial designer whose clean-lined and immensely popular pieces for the Dansk brand of tableware helped define the Scandinavian Modern style for postwar Americans, died on Jan. 4 at his home in Vordingborg, Denmark. He was 88."

He was a prolific designer who really set a standard with his work for Dansk. I recently scored a huge lot of amazing Teak wood items that are up at auction this week, which inspired this post... but first lets take a look at some of the other things he is known for:

Kobenstyle Enamelware

Here are a couple pieces of Kobenstyle enamelware I've sold in the past:

Yellow Coffee Pot & Pitcher Set

Yellow Casserole Cooking Pot

And look at what is up on eBay right now:

Aqua Casserole Cooking Pot - according to the seller, the rarest color!

Yellow Nesting Bowls

Flamestone

Here's a drool-worthy set:

Dansk Designs IHQ Flameware Coffee Service

Glassware

I love the simple style of the glassware I've seen, in great colors!

Green Glass Vase

Here's a cool ad showing a nice variety of glass:

Teak Wood

Ok, let's get to the Teak pieces that I was lucky enough to find! I bought them from a sweet woman who had them since she got married in the 50's... she was selling them to help raise college money for her granddaughter - isn't that nice? I wanted to keep them really, really, *really* badly - but practicality won out, as always.

Meat Serving Platter

Serving Tray or Platter - I actually got two of these!

Fjord Flatware - I got over 50 pieces of this amazing flatware, which I split up into place settings, except for my favorites, the iced tea spoons:

Awesome, huh? I love all of it! Click here to check out the rest - I have some trivets, coasters, napkin rings... a really unbelievable score!

In doing my research the most interesting thing I found is that the Teak pepper mills seem to be the most sought after - don't ask me why, but there is even a book about them for collectors:

They are cool, and there's several different shapes and styles... here's a couple that are up right now:

Dansk Teak Peugeot Pepper Mill

Dansk Teak Pepper Mill with Original Box

Oh wait! One other thing before I go -

Candle Holders

I also got a really cool cast iron candle holder and 2 boxes of the candles that were made especially for the Quistgaard holders:

There are several styles of these, this one I really love:

Cast Iron Candelabra Style Candle Holder

He actually designed a ton of candle holders - silver, teak, glass, cast iron - and if you are looking to add some Danish modern flair to your vintage decor, they are an affordable way to go!

Looking this post over I think it may be one of the longest ones I've ever done... it's ok, if anyone deserves it, it's Jens Quistgaard!

My weekend in Hocking Hills...

Finally I am ready to post about my weekend in Hocking Hills! I had a great time, it was gorgeous as always, and what a fun group of girls I got to hang out with!

That's Celeste on the left, the whole trip was her idea, and she put her heart and soul into planning it and making it a weekend to remember for all 17 of us. Amelia is on the right, she was my partner in crime for most of the weekend, just like back in the day... Love these two gals!!

Here's the lodge. It was at the top of a crazy hill. How crazy? I'm standing on the parking area looking up at the lodge for this shot. Here's one looking down from the same parking area to the road:

Yowza! Seriously though, the lodge was perfect, it had everything - hot tub, pool table, theater room, several bedrooms, huge kitchen, front and back deck... You couldn't ask for anything more.

Friday night we mostly hung out on the deck, drinking and telling stories. I discovered what a total lightweight I am, and passed out around 1am in the theater room in a recliner, nursing a splitting headache. I learned my lesson and didn't drink a drop the rest of the weekend!

Saturday I headed out to shop, while the rest of the girls went on a scavenger hunt Celeste put together. I'm kind of sorry I didn't go with them, they had a blast. Here they are after the hunt, figuring out which team won:

Yes, they all are sporting official t-shirts - like I said, Celeste went all out. The back of the shirts say: "If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit next to me." It was Bitch Fest, after all! ;)

I had a good time shopping though, and I even remembered to take my camera so I could show you all where I went! I started out at a flea market in the Hocking Hills Market complex.

It was a pretty cool setup, they had several of these barns around the central square area, and each barn had a dozen or so stalls where people had their stuff. I'm assuming most of them are there every weekend and just close up their stall during the week. Prices were pretty reasonable too, which is always a plus!

They had a concession area that was closed, but I couldn't resist taking a photo of the eating area - to die for!

There were also a dozen or so stores and a couple of antique malls in the same complex, the best one was the one inside the Ohio Bicentennial Barn:

I was super excited to eat in the retro diner that was there - I mean look at this place:

I was thinking handmade milkshakes, cheeseburgers and steak fries... This is what I got instead:

Denied! I don't have any clue why they would be closed in September, I wanted to cry...

After that I decided to head up the highway to where another antique mall is... I ended up spending an hour in a huge traffic jam, and it turned out my exit was closed! So I headed farther down the highway toward Logan, where I knew the Artisan Mall was, because Will and I went there a few years ago.

I forgot to take a picture of the outside, but I did snap one inside:

How cool is this baby buggy? I mean come on - it had chrome wheel covers! Sometimes I wish I could have a baby just so I could use all the cool stuff...

Ok, maybe not. But it was awesome, and the Mall had way more good stuff than the last time I was there.

So I bet you are wondering what I bought...

Not too shabby! My biggest gamble were the two Shawnee Pottery vases - I love them, and Shawnee Pottery in general, but I think I might have overpaid a bit. I don't feel too bad about it though, they were way too cool to leave behind:

These swanky swigs are driving me insane - I know I have seen them before, but I'm having trouble finding out who made them. Anyone have any ideas? I thought maybe Hazel Atlas, but they aren't in my book...

I'm a sucker for chalkware plaques, so these were a no branier... The cat is actually a bank made my Enesco, I think it is decoupage?

The juice carafe is too cute, but isn't marked. The two made in Japan ceramic rotating music boxes are *awesome* - especially the little hula girl! Will swears the other one plays the theme from the Godfather, but I haven't checked into that yet.

The Gorham Moppet figurine is adorable, and in its original box! In the back is a set of 3 Gemco choppers that are unused in their original (but pretty beat up) box. The carafe and glasses set is Libbey Glass, commemorating the Apollo missions.

Of course I couldn't leave these dolls behind - the one on the left is marked Korea, maybe by Bradley?, the other is marked Brechner. Does anyone know how to clean the fabric on their faces and bodies? They both have some dirt spots I would love to take care of...

Last but not least, I got this ceramic strawberry clock. I need to find a clock kit and fix it up! Anyone know where I can get one for a good price?

So, all in all, it was a great weekend. Up until the 75 mile an hour winds came through - it was kind of all downhill after that... ;)

I'm back, and so is the electricity!

Ohio isn't normally a state that has to deal with hurricane force winds, but Sunday they snuck up on us with basically no warning... For 6 hours the wind blew - sustained winds of 30 to 40 miles an hour, with gusts up to 75 miles an hour.

The freaky part? Not a drop of rain. Here is a photo of my backyard a couple of hours into the storm:

See how sunny it was? Really bizarre. See that gigantic tree limb? Luckily it didn't land on my car, or on our house!

I got home from Hocking Hills around 11:30am Sunday morning, caught up on email, did the radio show at 2pm, and took a little nap after it was over. About 3:45 I woke up and thought, wow, it's kinda windy out there... I talked to Walt on the phone for a few minutes, and while I was on the phone with him the power went out.

I turned the radio on to see what the deal was, and they were reporting that the entire state of Ohio was experiencing the storm, and that it wasn't supposed to end until 9pm. They were right - and by the time it was over, 2 million people were without power, the worst here in Franklin County, where there were around 400,000 people in the dark!

In the evening they broke the news that the power could be out for days, or even a week. No one was prepared, so it was a big scramble on Monday - most schools and some roads were closed, traffic lights were out, people were out searching for open stores to buy supplies, ice ran out in a matter of hours, etc. ...

We ventured out to the grocery and got some food, luckily we have a gas stove and a gas water heater, and we figured out how to make coffee by boiling water and pouring it through the coffee maker manually. That was really our biggest worry - if we hadn't figured that out, things could have gotten really ugly around here!

We saw half a tree knocked over across power lines at the end of our street, so we assumed we would be without power until the weekend. Luckily around 6:30pm today it came back on, and it hasn't gone out again. Of course this morning we had to empty our fridge, so I guess tomorrow morning I'll be headed to the store again...

All in all it wasn't that bad, more of an inconvenience than an emergency... We definitely can't complain when we compare what we went through to what the people on the Gulf Coast are going through!

Here's a few more photos I snapped yesterday:

The entire yard is covered in sticks and leaves... I called the landlord and told him he would have to send someone out to deal with the big stuff, but of course we haven't seen anyone yet. I'm hoping they will do something about this little stuff too, but if not I guess we will have to tackle it ourselves.

Here's my tiny front yard...

And here's the pile of stuff the neighborhood kids made in the middle of the cul-de-sac:

Here is the cable line hanging off the back of the house:

I was worried that even if the power came back on that our cable and internet wouldn't work until we could get that sucker back up where it is supposed to be, but luckily all is well.

Now I have to figure out how to get caught up on all the work that hasn't gotten done over the last 5 days! Once I get that all taken care of I'll be back to do my post about my trip to Hocking Hills...

Collectible Glassware - AuctionWally Show @ 2pm

Sorry for the late post about the show, I just got home from my trip! More on that later, though...

Today's show is about collectible glassware - I am going to cover kitchen glass, I actually started a Flipping Vintage series of posts about it over on The Vintage List blog if you want to check it out...

Tune in at 2pm EST for a great show with lots of good information, and as always you can chat in the chat room or call in at 646-378-1561.

I'm headed to Hocking Hills!

For the first time in 3 years I am actually getting out of town for a couple of days! Shocking, I know. Well, it's shocking if you know me and know what a homebody I am (hence the no vacation in 3 years thing.) Coincidentally I am going to the same area of Ohio that I went to last time - Hocking Hills.

Last time it was me and Will in a couples cabin:

This time, it is me and 17 other girls in a lodge:

The party has been appropriately titled Bitch Fest 2008. It is the brainchild of my best friend from high school, Celeste. Her and my other best friend from high school, Amelia, will be there, and I am so excited to get to spend some quality time with them!

It will be just like back in the day, when the three of us were attached at the hip and did everything together. Plus 15 other girls, of course! Half of them I will know but haven't seen in years, the other half will be new faces that I am sure I will know pretty well by Sunday morning!

Of course I am going to get some shopping done while I am down there. My first stop is The Hocking Hills Market, a sprawling complex of antique stores and flea market space, including The Antique Barn which is inside one of the Ohio Bicentennial barns. I can't wait to check it out, we skipped it on our last trip in favor of the other place I will be visiting, The Artisan Mall.

I'll be back next week to let you all know how it went! :)