filling the house up with junk, or collections, you decide

I like stuff a lot.  

I think I have stated here a number of times how I am far from a minimalist.  I am perhaps a maxamalist, if such a thing exists.  I sometimes feel a little defensive about my love of stuff, of collecting- living in a progressive town like Portland, with a zenned out hippie around every corner, one sometimes grows weary and even a little cranky at the whole minimalist aesthetic you find.    I also work in a setting where there is a very rigid notion of what is beautiful and what is not. 
When I come home, I want to luxuriate in my packed little domain, in my piles of old stuff.  It makes me happy and secure.   I am a happy packrat.

Thank goodness I have a whole host of enablers all around me providing me with fuel for my fire!

Rolf is a chemist, so we have a lot of scientific glassware lying around, so recently I started putting little decorative things into the various  glass containers sitting in the  he basement

I have no idea what their real purpose is. 

The ones with the funny little horns are some kind of vacuum, I know that much. 

I have chosen to fill  one it with an old school Deutsche Mark and the other with a Lira, because the artwork on these bills is beautiful and I have nothing better to do with them, now that the Euro is king.  

I also have a little ceramic bust of my dearly departed poodle Teddy Braun, inside what I believe is some other type of vacuum. 
The columns and flasks are filled with colored water.

The Frigidaire Flair!

1968 Japanese mug

In addition to liking random cool stuff, like scientific glassware, there is my well documented love of mid century pottery and ceramics, not to mention vintage appliances. 
I found this fabulous little mug, in my color scheme at Goodwill last week, for $00.99 and it made me deliriously happy for days.  I am working hard to find a replacement for our "Flair" stove, but if I can't find a good one, I now know there is a man in his late 80's in St. Helens that could repair mine.  Transporting a 350# stove to St. Helens in my station wagon might pose a problem though...

I may need this

I am obsessing about this fabric.

The poodle jumping through the hoop? nuff said.

The problem is that Bootiful Princess has such different taste than me.

She actively shuns that cool skirt I made out of the fabric with the pear print.

All she ever wants to wear is a threadbare, hand me down denim hotpantish- skort thing from the neighbor.

I long for a pinafore with vintage circus print, and my daughter wants go go boots and purple fur trimmed mini skirts.

She also forbids hair fixing.

We are vastly different, she and I.

My mother recently gave her (WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?) a Norse goddess Mme Alexander doll, and I nearly had a heart attack when she wanted to TAKE IT OUT OF THE BOX!

"Are you crazy? you can't touch that doll!! And don't even THINK about crimping the corner of the box, for GOD SAKES!"

Freyja simply doesn't get the concept of collectibles.

She was happy enough with a Barbie knock off, and you will be happy to know that Ingeborg is safely stashed out of harms way, in my closet!

Goodwill hunting

Freyja and Mark are out of town, at the beach with Mark's dad for the weekend.
Maxwell and I had to stay home, because Maxwell has his play this weekend, the final performance from the theater class he was in this term. We weren't that broken up over the prospect of a couple days without The Bootiful Princess.
Maxwell suggested going to Goodwill, which is something we both like to do on a Sunday morning.
I totally SCORED big! Finding a pair of Dansko sandals (which I was going to buy new for myself anyway) in perfect condition, AND these super cool black boots that look NEW. I also got those cute Garnet Hill kitty jammies, for Aunt Karen, who has a birthday coming up and loves both kitties and flannel jammies.
The dessert plates with the yellow roses are part of a German china collection my mother has, so I got them for her- they would sell at a antique store for $15-25 a plate, and these were $13 for 6, great deal.
The two teacups and saucers, are marked "West Germany US sector", and in perfect condition, and they work really nicely as candle holders!
Maxwell got some comics and a big Garfield collection book.
I found two sundresses for Miss F, too, so everyone should be happy!

hunt & gather

I like to collect.
I like stuff- old stuff.

I am tired of the term "vintage"
the whole vintage/grunge thing of the 90's spoiled the junk scene in Portland.


Man, back in the day (insert old hippie voice), I used to go to Goodwill presort and get stuff

BY THE POUND,

I mean really cool old clothes-

V I N T A G E,

coats and dresses, beautiful (well not beautiful as they were in the HEAP, but clothes with the potential to be beautiful, with a little TLC & SOAP.

clothes to make my mother weep.

I will pay you not to wear that (1950's wool swing coat with fox collar, for example)

Not anymore,

no sireebob.

not anymore.

You can no longer find cool cheap stuff at Goodwill, anything that looks remotely old, has the price jacked up to an absurd level.

Fortunately the pricers don't seem to be very educated on what truly has value, so occasionally something slips through.

Today, for instance there was a big, partial set of Noritake china
strewn all over the dish aisles.

I picked all the pieces I could find and put them together in a little display. I hope someone that loves vintage Noritake will find it, and not some professional "picking," for a chi chi Multnomah village antique store.

Rearranging the shelves in Goodwill is one of my favorite activities.

It is part treasure hunt, part cloak and dagger, because you never know when some employee is going to come around the corner and ask you what the hell you are doing with those plates.

I like to think of it as leaving a trail of crumbs for my fellow collectors.

Today I also gathered several pieces of vintage Pyrex fridgeware
which I know is HOT right now with all the hipster, craft bloggers I read.

I am currently limiting my dish consumption, but I will purchase if I find something truly remarkable in milkglass, Mikasa stoneware from the 70's, pieces of my Noritake collection or Fiestaware.

I did allow myself to buy a Waldorf seasonal celebrations book ($2.99) & a beautiful, large wrought iron looking doll bed, with a coverlet & pillow ($10) .