Collectible Friday - Glass Coasters

So for Collectible Friday, since I am on vacation in Oregon, I am doing small glass coasters.

Today after a delicious breakfast at the Lazy Susan Cafe in Cannon Beach and a trip to the loveliest of bookstores, I found a new antique store. It was right up my alley. All sorts of miscellaneous baubles laid out in the most appealing way. Sometimes antique stores are so stuffy that I feel like a bull in a china shop. This shop had a nice feeling to it. I bought a cute needlepoint tray that featured Victorian Homes and will be perfect for holding my dangling bracelets.

I also bought these glass coasters.I have more of these at the other house and I use them all the time. These ones feature, I think, different people feeling the effects of drinking. And a burly bartender mixing a martini. Showoff!Some of the scenes don't make sense to me but it is 3:00 and I am sober. I will look later on tonight and see if they become crystal clear. Kind of like wine goggles!

It is possible that this was a made up set. The two women, 1 is a ballerina which seems to me to have nothing to do with drinking and the other is in a risque lace dress, again not clear on the drinking aspects of a lace dress. Then we have some sort of carnival mirror fellow, he has very, very short legs, a weird looking hand and is wearing a hat with a bow on it. Who or what he is, again lost on me.
The last four are pretty clear that they are part of the same set. We have the burly bartender, a dapper gentlemen holding a martini, two tipsy dapper gentlemen leaning against a lamp post and singing and last a portly man in his pj's holding his head.
The decals are all placed on the back so the moisture of the drink won't make them come off. They are cute and if you need a coaster, these will do nicely. They are holding my GIANT iced latte right this minute and doing a fine job.

These were four dollars and it was money well spent.

Collectible Friday - Vintage Phones

Happy Spring!! Oh, Thank God. Though it looks a lot like winter but it is Spring. Oh, Thank God.

For collectible Friday, we are doing vintage phones. I love vintage phones, especially pink vintage phones. Oh sure, they don't have caller id, and sometimes they have temperamental wiring, but they work when the power goes out. And they are fun to look at.

With the exception of the black one, all of mine actually work and are in use. I have a cell phone, which I love, and in the kitchen I have a modern one but other than those, I use vintage.

The black phone is a ship phone. It was made to hang on the wall and you have to depress a button to get the handset off. This was so during rough seas it won't fall off. Plus, if you got hit with that handset it would HURT, that thing is heavy. I am going to have it rewired and hung up in the kitchen at the beach house.
The black and pink one is my favorite. It used to be by my bed. But both of my upstairs phones do not have ringers and so I needed to switch one out, so I put another pink one in my bedroom. The black and pink one hasn't found a new home yet, but it will. The little accessory laying next to it, is a dialer. Mine is a black poodle. These were made so that dialing wouldn't ruin a woman's manicure. You can find all sorts. I used to just use the end of a pencil but this is so much cuter. They come with a little clip that you can attach to your phone so they don't get lost. It is a very heavy phone.The two pink ones are from the 1960's and are commonly found, as is the yellow one.
The minty green one is a fabulous find. This is a Ericofon made by the L M Ericsson Company of Sweden. 1954 marked the beginning of production of the Ericofon. They were made for mostly industrial use, in particular hospitals. It was a one piece design which made it easier for patients to use. You pick up the phone and dial from the bottom. When you set the phone down, it hangs up. You just pick it up to answer. I love this one. Though it doesn't have a ringer, so you need another phone in the vicinity to know when to answer it. These are harder to find and slightly expensive. If you want a pretty color, you will pay more. I believe you can buy a ringer box at Radio Shack, but I haven't checked that out yet. They run in the $100.00 range to find one that works.

The yellow phone is what is known as a trim line phone. The smaller pink phone is called a princess phone. I know I feel like a princess whenever I use it. In the photo it is a little dirty. It is the phone I can get to the fastest upstairs, and since I am always decoupaging something, the phone is decoupaged as well. Someday soon I will fix that.

I also own (not shown) a bulldog phone. It is a big dog with the receiver being a bone. The dog barks instead of rings. It is cute but I find it hard to use, so I have it stored away.

The more common phones start about $25.00 and run up from there, depending on condition of phone, color of phone, and rarity of the phones feature.

You should give these a try. They are a little temperamental but overall fun to use. Plus, you can't go wrong with the color pink.

Need a Napkin?

Our unusual collectible today is:

Napkin Dolls

I know, in the old days they thought of everything. No roll of paper towels for these folks, nope a beautiful women whose skirt is made of napkins was the only thing that would do.

I own quite a few. They used to be fairly inexpensive and so I just picked them up when I found them. It wasn't just ladies, I have an umbrella one, a rooster one. They were ceramic or wood. But they all shared the same love of napkins.

The green lady holds napkins and is also a bell. I have no idea how that would work but obviously was a necessity at one time. Seriously, when you ring it, if you are not the one holding it, you will not hear it. Plus, she seems extremely peeved about something.

The pink set, is my favorite. First off, they are all decorated by the most garish rhinestones to be found. The two little girls, are salt and pepper shakers. But in a quest to be multi-functioning, the big lady actually holds napkins, the salt and pepper shakers, her head holds a candle, and her flat plate holds toothpicks for lovely appetizers. In the photo, the plate looks chipped but it is just camera glare. Ansel Adams I am not.
Amazing! Every night I rip off a paper towel and hope the kid actually uses it. I can't even imagine setting up one of these displays. You need to fold the napkin just so in order for it to slide into its slot. On the wood ones, you need to pull back this little rubber band. And in 9 cases out of 10, you accidentally release little rubber band before napkin is in place and it snaps the crap out of your finger. Jolly good time. It holds 15 napkins, which means 5 fingers are going to be in extra pain. So not worth it.

You can still find these around. The ones with the salt and pepper shakers are a little more difficult to find intact, as the shakers break pretty easily. They come in many colors and shapes, but I've yet to see a man napkin ring holder. I guess it wasn't in their job description.

They are pretty and a reminder of a different time. So I suggest you run, not walk, but run and find yourself a little napkin helper.

As if the dog world doesn't already judge us enough!

Collecting things used to play a big part of my life. Not so much anymore, mostly because I have run out of room. And until I start to downsize, I have taken a breather.

At first when I started collecting, I was all over the board and then I figured out I am just strange. I like strange collectibles. Goofy things that not many people would collect. Because really who would want them. So I needed strange and cheap. I didn't have a lot of money in my early days of stockpiling strange and unusual pieces of the past, so I had to be able to say "Hey, it only cost 1.00, what an awesome deal it was and instead of looking askew at me, you should be celebrating my ability to find a good deal."

So I started with lipsticks and compacts and small little purses, nice but not strange and not unusual. Then I walked into an antique store and found just what I needed.


POODLES WEARING GLASSES!

I know you are thinking "my gosh, there is such a thing!" Why, yes my Internet friends, there are. Lots and lots of them as it turns out. The '50's and '60's were a very clever time. I have no idea of their thought process back then and why the powers that be decided housewives would want poodles in glasses, I am just glad they did.

So on that fateful day, one came home with me. And then another. And then another. I own a poodle pack, a poodle herd, a poodle mob, or whatever you call a group of poodles. Especially a group all sporting glasses. I call them the perfect decorating accessory.

We have opera glasses. We have spectacles. We have glasses with rhinestones. We have glasses perched on the end of noses. We have glasses on top of berets. Glasses and more glasses.

The poodles come in many colors but the most popular it seems, were pink and blue. All have the funny spaghetti trim and most sport some outlandish dog collar. They all come in different poses. And they even made lovely poodle planters, so your African violets would never be lonely.
Very prim and proper these poodles are. Sporting such unusual color combinations would make most people cringe and question their ability to dress themselves but not these. Nope, turquoise, light purple with white rhinestones, and black with white rhinestones all flow together in perfect harmony. Add in a blue or pink body and we have a little slice of heaven right here on earth.

Now you might be thinking how many people could possible know about such a fantastic collectible. More than you can guess. If you look at the group photo, you will see a pink cow wearing glasses. I know, AWESOME. I received that for a gift a few years ago, so someone out there in the power that be position, knows about this strange group of dogs. Or, they are trying a new collectible, COWS WITH GLASSES.

Which just totally rocks!

A Mermaid Fair

I like to collect things, or it could be called stock piling a bunch of miscellaneous items. Books are my collection of choice but I have branched out into all sorts of things I need to own.

Today we shall cover Mermaids.

When we bought this house years ago, it had no soaking tub. Now I don't know about everyone else but a house is not a home without a wonderful soaking tub. I would prefer an old claw foot tub but really any thing that will hold a large amount of warm, bubbly water will work. So we added a tub but it had to be added into it's own separate room and it had to contain the Washer and Dryer! I know, the horror! Who wants to see those appliances ever and especially not while trying to soak your cares away.

But a tub is a tub and so I took what I could get. How to decorate a room with no windows, a huge sky light that had been added in the 80's and dirty clothes, is certainly a daunting dilemma. Then I found mermaids. They are brightly colored, can be hung on a wall, and are impervious to heat and moisture. I was off and running. Over time I have added fish and sea horses for a little diversity. Let's take a peek at some:

First, we have a large wall with the mermaid family. They run all around the room. Over doors, under lights, they sit on the tub surround and I even have a shelf with sit alone mermaids. If you notice any cobwebs, just think of it as kelp waving in the ocean tide, I know I do and I feel just fine about not dusting.

Where is the washer/dryer I hear you ask. It is tucked away behind closed doors and I had mermaids painted on the door fronts that are doing laundry.

So what do you collect?

Who would be
a mermaid fair,
singing alone,
combing her hair
under the sea,
in a golden curl
with a comb of pearl,
on a throne?
I would be a mermaid fair;
I would sing to myself the whole of the day;
with a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;
and still as I comb I would sing and say,
"Who is it loves me? Who loves me not?"

Lord Alfred Tennyson
"The Mermaid"