Sunday, April 29, 2012

Vacation suits me well

I decided to take a week off work to take a quick trip to Las Vegas, visit with some friends, catch up with friends in San Diego, spend time with my boyfriend, and relax, relax, relax; which of course included some thrift shopping.  I had a fantastic time in Las Vegas with family to celebrate my mom's birthday and visit with two gals that were my childhood friends and neighbors when my dad was stationed in England for just over a year.  It was a fantastic reunion and time just sped by.



Upon my return Dave and I spent a day in Orange antiquing and spent the afternoon at Disneyland.



If you frequent the park and live close I highly recommend purchasing the annual pass.  The pressure to get a full days worth done at the park disappears.  I think my favorite part of the day was sitting in New Orleans Square eating some popcorn and people watching with Dave.



Speaking of Disneyland, I have a very exciting announcement to share with you. Me and two fabulous friends are planning a "Tiki Day" at Disneyland park.  This is an unofficial themed day that will take place on September 23rd of this year.  Please find us on Facebook for more details and up coming announcements.  I'm so excited to be a part of this and have high hopes that it will be a successful annual event.



Now for my vintage finds.  Over the past week I purchased a couple milk glass items, four Fire King swirl bowls, tiki mug, various records, a couple vintage purses, vintage wooden bangles, and a vintage jewelry tree collage (my favorite find).



 I need to do a little more research as I don't know when these were popular but mine looks as though it's from the 60's just based on the pieces throughout the collage.  I think I may have been inspired to make one of my own.  Below is a link to a ehow page that gives some guidance to making a Christmas Tree vintage jewelry collage.

http://www.ehow.com/how_7669234_make-picture-old-jewelry-lights.html




Today I had the honor of watching the great Charles Phoenix.  It was an excellent show and think i may have over worked my stomach muscles laughing at all his retro slides.  I recommend you make a point to attend one his shows if he is ever in your neck of the woods.  You will not be dissappointed. I did get the opportunity to meet him after show while having dinner at the Chicken Pie Shop here in San Diego.  He was so friendly and I am excited to have made his acquaintance.  I did not get a chance to pull out the camera but I have a feeling it won't be my last encounter with him.    

I hope you all had a great week and even better weekend.  Sleepy time now. Good night darlings.

Till next time,

- Suz




Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Birthdays and Taxes

Whew.....It has surely been a crazy last couple of weeks and looks to be a packed fun filled summer ahead of me with Ink & Iron/Motor Rama, concerts, summer road trips, weddings, and many more adventures to be planned. Today was my first day off in close to three weeks.  I slept in until 8am (which is pretty good for me these days as it's getting harder to sleep in past 7:30am), got up and hand washed some goodies I recently thrifted, made breakfast, and headed out for a mini day of pampering and shopping.  I need to do some back tracking to get you all caught. I squeezed in some thrifting with Dave throughout the past few weekends and the highlights were a Bakelite butterscotch ring, some milk glass items, a Tiki Farm decanter, and many LP's. 





With the influence of Dave I purchased a record player from Target and thus has my vinyl obsession has begun. 



Today I hit up a couple stores in San Diego but was blown away by Thrift Trader's awesome $2.00 album bins.  I felt like I did some big damage but in the end only spent $30 on all the vinyl I ended up purchasing.  A couple highlights were some compilation big band albums, Taboo by Arthur Lyman and a couple Artie Shaw albums.  Speaking of Artie Shaw, I finally got to give Dave his birthday gift that I have been sitting on for over four months.  I found him a small hunting knife on Ebay that belonged to Dave's favorite big band leader Artie Shaw and decided that it had to be his.  I waited until his birthday to give it to him as the date on the authenticity certificate shows that it was bought at Artie Shaw's Estate sale on Dave's actual birthday!  The big reveal paid off and he is still ecstatic about it!  Unfortunately this will be a hard gift to top in the future.



Well, I'm getting sleepy and I am looking forward to a slower pace tomorrow at the office. Just finishing my six loads of laundry that have built up in the past crazy weeks, and calling it a night.

Good Night Darlings!

- Suz

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Waterfall Vanity

This has been a week full of surprises and great opportunities.  I was searching around craigslist for vintage furniture during the week and came across an opportunity I could not pass up.  The advertisement was for a vintage waterfall styled vanity that came from the 1930's and not only came with the mirror but a matching chair as well.  It was a bargain for the listed price; I couldn't resist this buy.  Dave did me the HUGE favor of picking it up for me with the help of a friend.  I'm so grateful for his help as he did it on his day off work and without the help of his friend, who happened to drive a car big enough to transfer, it would have been pretty impossible for me to acquire this awesome piece of furniture. I had been using a dingy bookcase that I purchased at Target years ago to store my girly vanity items and was a little concerned that it wouldn't all fit in the vanity; but everything fit perfectly and I was even left with some more room to grow :)

Dave thinks the vanity was made somewhere in Virginia and sold in Cleveland, Ohio according to the manufacturing tag he found when inspecting it.  The kind lady that sold me the vanity said that she purchased it in the early 1970's from someone here in San Diego whom she thinks was the original owner.  I explained my love of all things vintage to her and she ended up throwing in some very lovely figurines for free.  She told Dave that they go with the vanity so I made sure to keep them displayed on it.


I didn't have room to display the third one but it looks nice on the night stand next to my bed.  That was very nice of her to pass those onto me.  She told Dave that they are at least 80 years old.  The one with the lady in the pink dress has "Bobbie" carved on the bottom which leads me to believe these were hand made.  Just gorgeous!! 

This weekend was the bi monthly Big Frocking Sale at Frock You.  I wasn't sure if I was going to have time this weekend to check out the sales as I have been pretty busy at work with the deadline, but with a little luck I had some time Sunday morning not only to check out the sales but have brunch with some friends before heading to work...yes on Easter.




My hual consisted of a very cute vinyl black purse with bamboo styled lucite handle, a plaid maid's uniform from the 60's, and bangles.  All good buys and I spent under $25 for it all.





After a little time at the office, Dave and I ended up driving to the Bali Hai for some appetizers and Tiki drinks.  We explored Shelter Island before calling it a day. 




I can't believe the weekend is already at it's end.  Nine more days to go until the deadline.  Lots of fun and more vintage adventures to come.  Good night darlings!

Till next time,

Suz



Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Article to share.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/93-old-florida-woman-retires-her-64-mercury-204007316.html


I thought this story about a 93 year old woman who had such dedication to her car, which she originally bought in 1964 and continued to maintain and drive up until now, was quite inspiring.  She drove her car in true daily driver form.  Don't know if i will be driving the same car for the next 48 years, but I wouldn't mind not having a car payment for those many years.  I could think of a million other things to spend my money on  :)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Hello Internet!

Hello Ladies and Gents.  This is my very first blog.  So exciting!  I have had trouble updating my about me section so I'll take the time to type it in my first blog.  My name is Suzanne and I'm a hard working gal that is obsessed with anything produced between the 1920's and 1960's.  I love the thrill of the hunt while thrifting and antiquing.  I feel as though it is one of the many things I do to live by the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra.  Follow me on my journey through my many vintage adventures! 

Dave is my boyfriend who I'll more than likely mention in here several times as he shares the same obsession, although his is a little more narrowed to late 1920's and 1940's.

Today was a day off from work as I work in the accounting industry so it's not uncommon that I end up working through the weekend but I was generously given the day off.  I utilized this time off by catching up on some sleep.  I then did a quick search to see if there were any Estate sales in my area and found two that stood out.  I was unsuccessful with my first stop but did however find a vintage store I hadn't been to before, located in South Park called Bad Madge & Company, and ended finding some atomic styled salt and pepper shakers.  After that I drove to Del Cerro for an Estate sale and ended up with a great little hual.  I was sad to see that I had missed out on purchasing a fantastic mid century furniture set but know they went to good homes.  I ended up buying a red, white, and blue enamel flower pin that will match perfectly along with one of my outfits for Ink & Iron in June.  I also bought a vintage circular red gingham table cloth, red hand made gingham apron, oval frame (that i put Dave's silhouette picture from a recent trip to Disneyland in), a fantastic American flag scarf (also to be worn and Ink & Iron), a Pyrex dish with matching holder, and cute Halloween decoration.  I spent a total of $20 and was very happy with my finds.

Dave got off work at 3pm and we ventured off towards La Mesa where we hit up a Good Will and Antique Mall.  Good Will was very good to me.  I found a lava Easter Island tiki statue, black and white 40's styled heels, brand new unopened DVD of Wild Boyz seasons one and two, and a very cute western themed scarf.  Dave was the big winner finding a Georgio Armani mint green 30's styled suit.  We did some research online and found that the same suit he purchased retails for roughly $2000.00.  He paid $19.99!!  We then headed to the Antique Mall where I found some glass grapes which found a good home on my coffee table the second we got home.

 Dave found a stuffed rooster that will be a great addition to his friend's saloon.  All in all it was a day full of great finds.  We ended the day having dinner at Flemings and called it a night as I have an early and very busy next two weeks ahead of me.

Well I'm looking forward to starting this new blog and hope it inspires others in their search for vintage goodies.  Good night darlings.

Till next time!


- Suz