the saddest day

i just got the worst news. its a day i've long dreaded, when the first member of my favorite band in the world would pass away. RIP davy jones of the monkees, the first band i ever loved and the only band i've loved all my life. i'm so stunned and heartbroken right now i can barely put my thoughts together to write this.









(from the last time we saw them in concert)





















this is my favorite davy moment. he's totally stoned, and you can tell the exact moment when he thought of this joke before saying it because he starts cracking up.












you can read more about my love for the monkees here and here.

karma

so i guess all of you who posted about karma and something better coming along after my traumatizing estate sale experience really knew what you were talking about. thanks for all the kind words, it was nice not to feel like i totally screwed up on top of being screwed out of the prize.

two days after "the incident" josh and i stopped at a new junk store in town. we were delighted to find the basement filled with stacks of (really dirty) records. if we didn't have to be somewhere at the time, we definitely would have spent more than an hour digging through the stacks. we were told 45s were .25 each, which is my favorite thing to hear. i pulled out a nice-sized pile of 45s, including one that made me exclaim, "really?!?!" when i laid my eyes on it:



ramones 1976 on sire records, including "i wanna be your boyfriend," "california sun" and "i don't wanna walk around with you." no picture sleeve, but still. you can't beat the ramones for a quarter.

and when i went up to the counter to pay, the guy insisted that our first record purchase there was FREE and he only charged me for one of the two record boxes i was buying. talk about a score.

this past week it all came full circle when i found this:



it just so happens i like it even better than the one i didn't get. this was obviously homemade and it was kinda dumb how they made a hole in it to hang instead of attaching a hook to the back, but oh well.

and you know how much this cost me, greedy old man from the estate sale?? not a penny. zip. nada. nothing. sometimes its really nice to have friends in high places.

what have you found lately??

estate sale blues

today something very traumatic happened to me that taught me an important lesson about estate sales.

i've been going to estate sales for years, but because of my work schedule i usually only get to go on sundays when its the last day of the sale. often times they are picked over and sometimes i don't find anything at all. on the occasions that i do find something, the last day of the sale is usually half off so i end up feeling pretty good about scoring something neat for a great deal.

lately i have had more opportunities to hit up sales on the day that they begin. sometimes i know some of the contents of the sale, and i go with the intention of picking up the things i had my eye on. a few weeks ago was the first time that josh and i got up extra early to get in line and get a number, which ensures you a spot in line no matter how many people walk up after you get there. what i quickly realized was that doing this is far too stressful for me to handle. i don't like feeling like i have to fight everyone to get to the prize. and people are rude. almost all of them are older than me, my parents or even grandparents age, but that doesn't stop them from being pushy, bitchy, and downright mean. i do not like the competition or the cutthroat attitude these hardcore early bird buyers are dishing out.

today was only the second time that we went early enough to get numbers. i knew exactly what i was going for and i had josh as a second pair of eyes to double my chance of scoring: this shadow box.



i got in after about 20 other people, but they stopped josh at the door because they were only letting 5 people in at a time. sort of panicked that i had to find it alone, i followed my instinct and headed for the basement. it was crowded with junk and a quick scan of the room didn't produce the shadow box anywhere. i politely asked one of the sale workers if she remembered what room the box was in and she pointed to a far wall of the basement.

"you mean those? there's two," she said.

i tried to contain myself and forced myself not to run. as i walked over, i had to go around an old man who was standing in front of one of the boxes, holding the knick-knack that was inside and turning it upside down (i would assume to look for a makers mark). as soon as he saw me get over there, he looked up and grabbed the shadow box in front of him off the wall.

here is where i messed up.

even though i am not an experienced "early bird" estate sale buyer, i am familiar enough with the etiquette to know that anything that is not in someone's hand is fair game. sometimes people make "piles," which is even sorta pushing it for rightful ownership to me, but when something is still on display it is up for grabs. i was standing in front of the second shadow box when the man quickly snatched his off the wall and began walking over to me. i know i should have grabbed the one in front of me when i had the chance. but i am not a jerk and i seized up in the uncertainty of the situation. i have a hard time asserting myself or standing up for myself. i'm shy and quiet. i'm passive aggressive and too polite for my own good sometimes. all of these things were my downfall.

i squeaked out, "are you getting both of them?" to which the old man replied, "yep," and snatched the one off the wall in front of my face.

he put the pair of shadow boxes in a stack of crap he was getting and left them while he continued looking around the house. i was so heartbroken i couldn't even recover fast enough to grab any of the other neat things around me. people were swarming in as they let more and more people into the house, and i walked around in circles trying hard not to cry.

also, i have pms right now. so excuuuuse me.

i waited and waited, just in case the guy changed his mind and didn't get them. the sale worker saw what happened and i could tell that she felt sorry for me. i asked her, "if he decides not to get them after all, can i?" and she offered to find the man and check because he had been gone for so long. she came back and told me, "he said his daughter sent him here to get them and he's not changing his mind. sorry. you just gotta be more demanding!" i thanked her and told her i wish i could.

so that was my day. it's been haunting me ever since. i just tried to take a nap and couldn't even sleep because all i keep seeing in my mind is that guy snatching it up in my face.

boo.

lesson learned, though. be a jerk. get what you want, cuz if you don't someone else will.

calling all vintage lovers

added a bunch of new vintage to the shop yesterday, be sure to take a look!


kippy deville vintage burlesque photo


puppy knick-knack


squirrel knick-knack


celebrity trivia book


disco fever book


tv rock book


how to speak like a pittsburgher book


framed big-eyed girl eden print


sixties record lot


soul record lot


girl groups and female singers record lot #1


girl groups and female singers record lot #2


doo wop record lot


miscellaneous record lot

in the mail

the mailman has been bringing me some nice surprises lately.

herman arrived the other day and my first reaction was, "where have you BEEN all my life?!" i love the fact that someone decided a herman munster trash can needed to exist, even more so because they thought it should say "love, herman xox" on it.



i got some pretty new record totes to add to the collection and i was excited to find that they are in really excellent shape!



a few weeks ago i was the lucky winner in a contest over at the lovely tattoo tales blog. this isn't my first piece of art from illustrated ink; in fact, i already had a peacock t-shirt and one of leila's custom dia de los muertos mermaids hanging on my bathroom wall! i'm excited for this print because when i entered the contest, i knew instantly i would love to set it up on our table at the wedding in a few months. and apparently it was meant to be!



finally, i got a birthday treat when my friend jeff sent me some of his famous pumpkin drop cookies. among his many talents (baking being a brilliant one!) you may have heard of the little band he played bass guitar in called the dead boys. these are my favorite cookies that he makes and he sure did put a smile on my face.






have you gotten anything fun in the mail lately?

birthday / valentine's day!

it's my birthday today! i'm 30. gross!

here i am 29 years ago, setting the bar high for the next 3 decades.



happy valentine's day to the rest of you. i wish i knew who made this amazing photo so i could give them credit but sadly i don't. it's too good not to share, though.

have a happy day!!!

birthday weekend junkin

what a monster of a junkin haul josh and i came home with this weekend! or should i say, "monstor" haul??



looks like the junkin gods were wishing me a very happy early birthday. i have no idea how we got all this home with us but here we are.

the funeral home sign is from a local chain that has since merged with several other funeral homes. now that they don't need the sign with their solo name anymore, we are happy to make use of it.



after doing a little rearranging, mayor mccheese got himself a new perch atop the six million dollar man as well.





here's a confusing history about this old wbkc 1560 radio station sign that chronicles its varied formats and affiliates over the years, including gospel, adult comtemporary, sports, etc.




regardless of its unimpressive background, we thought it was a neat piece of history since we're music nerds (and i'm a fellow radio dj, after all). it looks great in the record room.



monstor may look familiar because we previously found just the monster face shell on a junkin excursion last year or so. ours was badly faded, missing paint, and of course, missing the most important part: the gumball machine! we improvised and used the old shell as a shelf above our mantle.



now we have a working gumball machine in awesome shape to go along with the matching shelf.





next order of business: buy lots of candy!!!



josh and i have had our eye on a taxidermy mongoose fighting a rattlesnake at a spot for about a year now, but the price is just a bit too much for us. imagine our delight when we came across this mongoose today who was battling not one but two cobras! it wasn't in the best of shape so we got it for a great deal. we just tell people that the mongoose is winning this race.







i also brought back a record tote and some records, because no junkin trip would be complete without them.



all in all, one of the most successful junkin trips EVER!