freshvintage

On the radio with DJ freshvintage

So...I was interviewed on a local radio show last week: Eat, Drink and Meet Mary. Mary Bigham is a food blogger who has a network of websites about restaurants and events in the Philadelphia suburbs (particularly Chester County, which is where I live). She has a weekly radio show on Fridays from 12-1 EST on WCHE 1520. It is also broadcast live online and recorded for your repeated listening pleasure. Although most of her blog content is local, she has interviewed some big-wig national foodies like Jose Garces, the Beekman Boys, and winners from every Top Master Chopped Iron Chef show that exists. She'll ask them anything, too - which makes her show even more fun. Mary also has a partnership with Southwest Airlines where she (or one of her writers) travels to a city, eats all of their good food and makes fun videos about the trip. It's called DishTrip.com.

And she loves vintage, which is where I come in. You can listen to my stint on her show here. My interview starts around 18:30 (but I encourage you to listen to the whole show, of course). Please keep in mind that it was my first time on the radio and I know that I stammered and sounded a little idiotic on several occasions. I hope you still like me and still think very highly of me.

Since it is a foodie show, Mary asked me to offer some ideas on using vintage finds while entertaining, especially for the upcoming holiday season. One tip I mentioned was using vintage medical or tool carts as a hub for your drinks, bottles & glasses during a party. Here's a medical cart that I sold earlier this year at Clover Market. The buyer was planning to use it as a bar. Smart girl.

 

And a tool-chest-turned-bar-cart that I had for sale at the most recent Clover Market (and is still for sale!):

And this very-newly-acquired tool chest that is for sale now:

I also talked about using small enamel tubs or silver punch bowls as beer & wine coolers. Here's the silver punch bowl that I mentioned (for sale!):

And you can find the (not vintage) pumpkin beer cooler on the Southern Living Magazine website:

Mary asked me if I had any decorating ideas for a Halloween party, and I told her about the pair of large framed photos that Chris bought at an auction a few weeks ago. My kids and I decided to scare them up a bit, and add fangs using white duct tape. You could also use white medical tape.

 

She wants to eat your flesh with her cock-eyed fangs.

My last tip was about using wooden crates, glass cake stands and other inexpensive vintage finds to add height to your appetizer, dessert or buffet table. It is so much more visually appealing when your food is displayed at different heights on a table. And in funky, conversation-starting containers.

These divided cheese boxes would be great for shelled peanuts or pistachios...nuts in one side, and empty shells in the other.

We talked about using soda crates to hold rolled-up napkins with utensils. You could also use them to store the liquor, water or soda that doesn't need to be iced:

Please don't judge me on my current inventory of booze. This looks like something a 17-year-old girl would have stashed in her closet....Godiva Chocolate liqueur, Rumple Minze and Old Smuggler. And don't even get me started on the Tuaca. That stuff is deadly.

I would love to hear your feedback...what did you think of the radio show? Do you have any other tips for entertaining with your vintage home goods? Or creepy Halloween decor using flea market finds?

Some cool things we are hauling to Clover Market

Here are some of the totally groovy vintage finds that Chris and I will be bringing to Clover Market on Sunday.

This is a Rem Line tool chest, that would make an excellent drink cart. (Is it wrong that I am using a child's chalk board to announce the drink of the day? Oh, well. Hopefully, the kids at Clover Market can't read.)

There are even divided drawers for your napkins and wine openers.

And another cart - this one is gray-painted wood on wheels. Along with a chippy First Aid box, wire shopping basket, step ladder and a "Kiss Me" orange crate from Kissimmee, Florida. It is a little creepy. I have a feeling that the kids on the label are brother and sister.

Continuing the "on wheels" trend, here is a huge grocery store display cart with wire baskets. Use it for kids toys. Or craft supplies. Or yarn. Or shoes. I don't care what the hell you use it for. Buy it because it is cool.

Each basket is adjustable:

For those of you (SueLa) who thought my enamelware turkey platter should be relegated to the kiddie table, here is a photo of said kiddie table. It is a tween-sized folding metal table, with a set of four school chairs. AND A TOTALLY AWESOME TURKEY PLATTER.

My favorites...two farmstand painted signs. A two-sided Peaches sign, and a Cider sign. They are huge...way taller than me. But I'm only 5' 4", so that's not saying much.

These are never-used paper signs from a grocery store, circa 1948. I think they would look so cute in a kitchen. 

I might hang the Sani-Flush one in my bathroom as a gentle reminder to my family to flush the damn toilet.

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Ignore the next paragraph if you live thousands of miles away.

If you are local...are you coming to Clover?  Is there something that you saw on my blog that you want me to bring? Shoot me an email. We would love to bring everything in our garage, but that ain't happening. If you have an undying need for something specific, let me know and I will stuff it into the back of the camper. Along with an unholy amount of other stuff. Just don't drive behind us - the bumper of our camper will probably be making sparks along Route 1.

freshvintage at Clover Market

Join us at Clover Market on Sunday, October 16, 2011!

10 am - 4 pm rain or shine
12 E. Lancaster Ave.
Ardmore PA 19003

This is the biggest Clover EVER! Over 70 vendors selling jewelry, art, crafts, good and lots of VINTAGE & ANTIQUES! Lisa from Brandywine View will be selling there, along with Meg (Hooten Nanny), a fellow dealer from the shop. And Allison from Nannygoat Antiques. And Gloria & Alison from Cottage Home. All of my buds.

I'm bringing my camper, if you'd like a tour. Don't worry - you'll have time to shop. The tour will only take about 1.5 seconds.

 

 

How to Search For (and Find) a Vintage Travel Trailer or Camper

Ever since we bought our vintage travel trailer (also known as a camper), people have been asking us where we found it. I thought I would share the daily ritual of frenzied web searches that led up to it's purchase, in case you were thinking about jumping on the camper craze yourself.

We started thinking about buying a vintage camper in the spring of 2011. After doing a few weeks of research, I learned that we were limited in what we could buy, due to our tow vehicle. We have a Town & Country minivan, which has a tow limit of 1,800 pounds. (We don’t have the factory-installed tow package - big mistake on our part. It would have included all of the necessary towing equipment and bumped up the limit to 3,600 pounds for a cost of $600). The weight limit also includes the cargo & passengers in the minivan, so we knew that we should look for a travel trailer that was around 1,200 pounds. (If you are doing the math, you’ve figured out that I weigh 600 pounds. Bravo to you.)

The brand of camper didn’t matter to me. I just knew that I wanted one around 1,200 pounds that was pre-1970s (although, I found a few cute early-seventies campers, so I included those in some searches). Those two pieces of information helped me narrow down how and where I would search for a camper. Oh - and it had to be super-cute. But you don’t get a lot of meaningful results when you Google “super-cute vintage campers for sale”.

I should also mention that we don’t have any local RV dealers who sell vintage campers, which explains why we were going to the web route. A local dealership is probably the best place to start if you are in the market for a vintage camper. And, it is always best to see a camper in person before you buy it. But we totally ignored that advice, so feel free to ignore it, too.

Here are the sites that I used nearly every day for six months:

1. Tin Can Tourists
This is a website devoted to vintage motor home and trailer enthusiasts. It has a Classifieds section that I included in my camper-searching ritual. Here is the link that I used: Tin Can Tourists Search. There isn’t anything special about my search - it is just goes straight to the page where the For Sale ads are sorted by most recent listings. Because I was checking the site often, I could see the new ads right away.

Tin Can Tourists only allows up to three photos on the site, so many of the sellers link to outside websites like Photobucket or Shutterfly to share more photos. Some sellers don’t include any photos, so you’ll have to email them for more info.  

There is a wide range of campers on Tin Can Tourists, from just-found-in-a-cornfield camper to fully restored beauties. I would say that most of them are closer to the restored end, which made it a good place for us to look for campers, since we are lazy and didn't want a fixer-upper.


2. Craigslist & Related Sites
In order to perform an efficient search on Craigslist, you have to know how to use the pipe symbol, which looks like the vertical line: |. This is a link to a search that I commonly used on my local Craigslist.  Here’s the text of the search:

((vintage camper)|(vintage trailer)|shasta|scotty|airstream|argosy)

You can see that I separated all of the keywords with the pipe symbol. It’s the same thing as putting an “OR” between each phrase or word. If there is more than one word (like “vintage camper”), then you have to put it in parentheses. And then you put everything in parentheses.

My Craigslist search was in the Philadelphia area for listings in the For Sale: Recreational Vehicles (RVs) section. If there are results in nearby areas, they show up at the bottom of the page. But you can’t control the nearby areas that show up, so you have to do multiple searches in different cities and states in order to get broader results.

Instead of performing a zillion Craigslist searches, you can use a website called SearchTempest.com, which lets you enter the distance from your location. For example, your results can include all Craigslist listings within 500 miles, if that’s how far you are willing to go for a vintage camper. Also, on my iPad, I have an app called CraigsPro, which makes it a little easier to perform Craigslist searches across many different cities and states. This is also great for yard-sale searching, so it was worth the 99 cents. There are similar apps for Android and iPhones.

Alas, through all of my Craigslist searching, I found that most of the campers on Craigslist needed some level of restoration. Many had water damage, which is the most prevalent problem with these old travel trailers. We wanted a camper that was already restored, so I had trouble finding contenders on Craigslist. But I still looked at Craigslist every day...just in case.


3. eBay
Here is the super-duper eBay search that I performed every morning: Vintage Trailer eBay Search. Feel free to steal it and give it a few tweaks. It isn’t just a search for “vintage camper” or “vintage trailer”. In fact, I didn’t use any key words in the search. I honed the results to only include:

• Campers listed on eBay Motors > RVs & Campers category
• Campers made before 1976
• Campers under 25ft in length (although 16 ft would have been sufficient)
• Results sorted by “Time: Newly Listed”

Be sure to use the filters along the left side of the page to help narrow your results.  And then click the link that says "Save this search" at the top of the page.

In the beginning, I also included a location filter: I only wanted to see campers within 200 miles of my zip code. But the results were too limited, so I removed that filter.

When you use the Model Year in your search criteria, keep in mind that some sellers don’t know what year their camper was made. So, they don’t enter any year in their listing. If your search is limited to specific years, then you might miss some campers. Every once in a while, I would remove all of the year filters from my search, just to see if I missed any vintage campers.

I originally had it set up to email me everyday, but those notifications just don’t seem to work for me - I was getting irrelevant or duplicate results in the emails. So I would just run the search at least once a day.

eBay ended up being the winner for us - that’s where we found our 1956 Scotsman. Funnily enough, I had never even seen another Scotsman in all of my months of searching. So it wasn’t a keyword that I would have typed into any of these websites.

The seller had a very high feedback score, a detailed listing, provided many photos and answered all of the questions that we had. We could tell from his listing that he took pride in his work. In the end, it worked out for us, but you have to consider the risks of buying something without seeing it first. Most seasoned travel trailer owners would say that it is a bad idea. But I am not a seasoned travel trailer owner, so I can play dumb if I want.

4. Other RV Sites
Here are a few other websites that I would visit every once in a while. Some of them aren’t very active, but you never know if you don’t look!

RV Trader Online
There aren’t a lot of vintage trailers on this site, but it was worth the occasional look. Here’s the search that I used: RV Trader Search.

VintageCampers.com
These bare-bones campers are for hard code restorers only.
 
Sisters on the Fly
The famous club of like-minded outdoorsy women has a page dedicated to campers for sale on their website.

Vintage Shasta Trailer Forum
If you are specifically looking for a vintage Shasta travel trailer, this message board is a great place to start.

Vintage Trailer Supply
This company only sells supplies, parts & hardware for vintage campers, but their website has an extensive list of forums and groups for specific trailers brands.  So, if you are looking for a certain brand, you can join their Yahoo group and check if any trailers are for sale. While I was deciding whether or not to by the Scotsman on eBay, I joined the Scotsman Yahoo Group in order to see if there were any issues or problems that I should be aware of. You don’t need to own a trailer in order to join the groups.

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Do you have a vintage camper? Where did you buy it? I would love to keep adding to this post with your ideas.

And, I am thinking about creating a series of posts about vintage campers. Do you have any questions about my travel trailer? Nothing is too personal for me, so ask away! Or, do you have general questions about buying/selling/using/fixing up old trailers? I might not know the answers to everything, but I can give it a try or do some research for you. Leave your questions in the comments below.

Images credited to respective websites: Tin Can Tourists, Search Tempest, Sisters on the Fly.

Chiclets, My Pimp and Hideous Babies

We were supposed to use our camper for the first time last weekend, but the forecast was RAIN! FLOODS! LOCUSTS! We cancelled our camping plans, and, of course, it only ended up raining on Friday afternoon. The rest of the weekend was just fine. Damn you, Hurricane Schwartz straight to hell!

The upside, and it's a good one, was that I was able to hit the Antiques Extravaganza in Adamstown on Sunday morning (a thrice-yearly super-duper weekend at my favorite antiquing trifecta: Renninger's, Black Angus and Shupp's Grove).

I spent $37 for everything in this picture. Click on it to enlarge.

I'm kidding! Wouldn't you hate me?! I would hate me!

I actually spent a bit more than I normally spend. But I saw so many things that I wanted. And I have Clover Market coming up on October 16th, so I need to stock up. And, most importantly, I didn't want the good stuff ending up with some loser, so I had to rescue them. For their own safety.

By the way - the table that everything is sitting on was a previous purchase. It is an old table that came from a pizza shop. It is awesome.

That cubby thing on the right was made from scraps of old boxes. You can see the stenciling here (it says "glass", not "ass"):

This bucket bench has a unique design...with the rounded picket corners and the criss-cross bottom boards. I am picturing it on someone's front porch, with a row of colorful mums and pumpkins sitting on top. Hmmm...maybe I'll keep it.

This litho bucket caught my eye. I've never seen one like this.

My maiden name is Burke. And I like Ale. So, I obviously needed to rescue this wooden crate.

I'm not quite sure why I bought all of these crocheted potholder thingies. There are some nice colors in there. And they were fairly inexpensive.

I know exactly why I bought the Pelican Cooler (that has an intact glass liner). Can't you just picture it sitting on the counter?

I also found this painted mahogany two-tiered table, these orange & white napkins and the orange desk lamp:

The seat of this 1950s chrome stool was originally painted aqua, to match the stripes around the edges. Someone painted it white and totally defaced it with a hideous decal, which I promptly removed with a few squirts of Goof Off.

I would keep this if my husband wore ties regularly. Alas, he is more of an outdoorsman-woodsman type. This tie rack made by Nu-Dell in 1937 has a dial that offers you fashion advice, based on the color of your tie.

I don't know anyone, other than my pimp, who can pull off a black & red tie with a gray shirt and a blue suit. But times were different in 1937.

 
I've always wanted an old candy rack for displaying my ephemera and other paper goods at sales like Clover.

Each of the gum graphics are made of metal:

Yes, another dress form. I sold the last one I bought, so this is her replacement. She is an Acme junior-sized dress form.  And she is standing next to an awesome green-painted library cart. On casters!

Sitting on that shelf is Harriet Hubbard Ayer's Book, published in 1899. It is about women's beauty & hygiene.

What kind of super cool lady doesn't even have a title for her book? It's like if I published a book called Colleen Allison's Book. I know - it has best-seller written all over it.

I could devote an entire blog to Harriet's book. (No, not a blog post  - an entire blog). She has one chapter called "The Sin of Dowdiness". These quotes are all from one page in that chapter:

"There is nothing so fatal to a girl's chances as untidiness." [A bad case of The Clap is a close second.]

"Freckles are not pretty, and they are practically there to stay."

"The complexion of the red-haired girl is her most serious drawback. It lends itself to untidiness, so the victim must be careful to keep it looking clean and well cared for."" [So sorry, my dear red-headed sister/victim, Erin.]

"If my little red-headed girl has not nice teeth, she should have them repaired and made pretty and wholesome".  [But I guess snaggle-toothed blondes are acceptable?]

This is from a chapter called "How to Sleep". Yes - A WHOLE CHAPTER!

Not only did she dole out beauty advice, but she also gave out motherly advice - like how to ensure that your hideously-deformed, pug-nosed, disgustingly-ugly baby grows up with a pretty nose:

 

Yes, the crazy bitch is telling you to SQUEEZE your baby's nose. Like, all the time.

And don't forget about those hideous ears! Either strap them down with a specially-made bonnet for Dumbo-eared babies, or just pin them back with your hands.

I'll have to keep reading to see if she has any sound advice on douching. The advice from my last womanly book made me itchy.

Our 1956 Duro Scotsman Travel Trailer

We debuted our 1956 Duro Scotsman travel trailer (aka camper) at the Brandywine View Fall Fling Tent Sale last weekend.

I should've charged admission - I would be RICH! So many people took a peek inside. I enjoyed telling the story of Chris and Doug traveling to Michigan to pick up the camper after we won it on eBay. They ended up stopping at the NFL Hall of Fame and the Soaring Eagle Casino, so the trip wasn't exactly torture for them. I was just glad they made it home alive - it was pretty risky to test out the new hitch on our minivan by driving 700 miles with a vintage camper that you'd never seen before. Two days before a hurricane was forecasted to hit.

Here is the dinette area, which folds down into a twin-size bed. Don't you love the camper-themed fabric on the curtains & pillows? I'm not usually a fan of "themed" fabric, but it has all of my favorite colors and matches the exterior paint colors.

And, yes, that's a flat screen TV. That was not a prerequisite when we were searching for campers, but it definitely will help on rainy days when we are camping with the kids.

Here's the gaucho (that's camper-speak for "couch") in the back. It folds down into a bed.

I'm not fond of the fabric, so I covered it in one of my vintage crazy quilts. I'll eventually re-cover the gaucho and the dinette benches.

The previous owner covered the drawer and cabinet fronts in a few different fabrics that I'd like to change out. I'd like to find a few fun patterns that complement the camper-themed fabric.

The camper has a new fridge and mini microwave, but the propane Princess stove is original.

The floor is also original:

The previous owner did a really nice job of restoring the camper. He replaced all of the walls with new birch panels, and he covered the ceiling in wallpaper that he painted with copper paint.  There is also copper-colored tin backsplash in the sink area.

I'd like to re-paint all the copper eventually. And the birch walls. Is that wrong? I know the die hard vintage-camper-lovers are very much against painting the birch walls. I just love the look of a white interior - it makes the camper seem a tiny bit bigger (if that is possible).

 

The most-asked question at the Tent Sale was, "Are you really going to use it for camping?" The answer is yes. Chris and Maeve have already slept in it once (in the driveway). And we had an impromptu trailer trash party with some neighbors one night, when we plugged it into our house with an extension cord and sat around in folding chairs on our sidewalk and drank beer. But we are actually planning to go to a real campground in a few weeks to celebrate Finn's 9th birthday.

We picked this camper because all of the hard work was already done by the previous owner. The only thing we need to do it a little redecorating. I've been obsessed with Pinterest lately - I created a board of Vintage Camper Inspiration. I would love to hear from you about the changes that you would make. Do you have any paint or fabric ideas?  I haven't made any decisions yet, so I am open to all of your fabulous ideas!

UPDATED: If you are looking for your own camper, I wrote a post with details on how you can search for one!

Back to School in Vintage Style

Chris, the kids and I drove into Lancaster County, PA this morning for the Landisville Annual Labor Day Flea Market and town-wide yard sales. It was our first time there, and we will definitely go again next year. The sky was overcast, so it kept many of the regular vendors away. I imagine that it would have been twice as big if the weather was better.

I spent $35 for everything in this post. That ledger (circa 1901) was only three bucks and the aluminum clamp-on work light was two bucks...which is why I wish this sale was every weekend, and not once a year.

This is my favorite find: the green utensil box with the white painted diamond decoration.

The two sets of flashcards in the first photo were from a big box of 1950s and 60s learning aids that came from an old school. These were all in that big box:

There are cardboard letters, wooden letters and felt letters...

...even flocked letters.  And shapes and animals:

They are made of cardboard. One side is orange, and the other side is white with green flocking. I wonder if these would stick to my fabric corkboards?

I love the simple design and colors on these rulers. They were made in England and are called 'Apex Learner's Measure".

I was excited to open one of the little boxes and find this set of seven magnifying glasses with navy blue grosgrain ribbons.

Rhyming pictures:

GIANT SIZE Alphabet Poster Flash Cards (11" by 14"):

These would look so cute hanging up around a vintage-style nursery.

Here's a box of Ideal Dial-A-Face flashcards and wheels with different facial expressions. I guess the students had to match the appropriate expression with the blank faces on each card.

This card freaked me out a little.  Is he planning to strangle that sweet girl?

And then I was even more freaked out when I found this face on the wheel!

I had to re-read the box to make sure it wasn't some kind of learning aid for kids in juvy. Maybe they should have called it Dial-A-Mugshot.

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I will be selling these vintage finds and much more at the Brandywine View Fall Fling Tent Sale next weekend (Sept 10 & 11th). If you are in the area, please stop by and say hi. There are lots of fun events going on that weekend, like the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival and Chadds Ford Days. It will be worth the drive!

And if you are still debating whether or not you should come, did you see that Brandywine View was included in the Flea Market Style Magazine's list of Best Antiques Malls in PA?! You don't want to miss this sale!

I Heart Stalkers

Every once in a while, the super-awesome readers of my blog send me stuff that they know I will like. They email me and say, "I hope you don't think I'm a stalker, but I want to send you something in the mail. Can I have your address?" Studies show that only 3 out of every 10 people who ask for your address are murderers. I will take my chances if it means that I get a package in the mail.

Katie sent me this cute apple juice label, because she knows that I collect apple-related labels and signs. She is a seasoned junker - look at this unbelievable vintage glider that she found in the trash.

Michelle from Dallas sent me these cufflinks and tiebar, which she had found in her grandmother's house. (I shared these on Facebook a few months ago.) It took me a while to figure out why she thought I would like them. I thought they were baby feet. But, after a couple of minutes, I realized why it was funny. And then I felt sick for thinking that they were baby feet. You can read the comments on Facebook here.

Amy from Into Vintage and Vintage Market Guide sent me this box of "Party Jocs Coasters for your Highballs". What the hell was I going to find in here?

Mini jock straps for your cocktails. And it even says it on the waistband: "For your High Balls". It's a good thing they printed that on the waistband. Otherwise, some dumb man might mistakenly put one on his real balls.

 

If your cocktail glass had a butt crack, you would be able to see it. Just like a real jock strap.

Do you think the number refers to the inches? I'll stick with four, given the options.

Thanks again, Michelle, Amy & Katie!

Hurricane Preparation Tips for Lazy Antique Dealers

Here are a few tips on how to prepare your home for a hurricane, specifically for people who can't fit another damn thing in their garage.

Tip #1: Tie down everything on your deck or patio

Here's what my deck normally looks like:

Here's what it looks like now:

Most of my neighbors were able to actually put all of their furniture into their garages. I know - that is AMAZING! Like a miracle sent straight from God Himself. Not us, we bought some super-strong bungee cords and secured all of our furniture directly to the deck railings. I bet my neighbors are all in pain right now, from all that heavy-lifting. Bungee cords, dummies!

Tip #2: Move all of the junk that is on your front porch into your living room

Maybe your husband reads your blog and found out that you like typewriter tables, so he bought you every one within a fifty-mile radius. And since your garage is packed, you were storing the tables on your front porch, right next to your front door. Because that's where you like to do your typing. Anyway, just drag that junk inside, and plop it anywhere.

Tip #3: Keep the heaviest stuff on the porch because you are lazy

If you have any super heavy iron hospital beds, and you are too tried and hungover to bring them inside, just lay them down on the porch. If you get a second wind later in the day, you might want to bungee cord those to a porch column or something sturdy.

Tip #4: Don't buy a vintage camper on eBay and then send your husband and brother-in-law to pick it up in Michigan three days before a major hurricane. And then don't buy the biggest tarp in the history of tarps, and make your tired husband cover the camper, even though he had just towed it 700 miles in the rain, and there were no leaks.

Can't wait to show you what it looks like! I want to make sure it survives the hurricane first. Don't want to get my hopes up.

Playing with My Bird

Yes, I love flea markets. Especially the ones in Adamstown, PA. Chris and I took the kids to Black Angus, Renninger's and Shupp's Grove last Sunday.

Chris and I had lots of fun. I can't say the same for the kids. There weren't many dealers at the markets, so we told them to play tag in the empty spaces. That lasted about 15 minutes. Then they managed to wander into the woods and find two dangerously sharp sticks. Daggers, really. A sword fight ensued. I debated whether I should just leave them alone because we finally had some peace. But then I imagined myself chasing one of their eyeballs as it rolled the dirt, so I made them lose the daggers. When we finished shopping, we erased all of their bad flea market thoughts by taking them to an awesome miniature golf place in Lancaster. 

Amid all of the whining and bribing, we did manage to find some cool stuff. We spent $115 for everything here. Most of our finds were from the flea markets, except for the burlap sacks that Chris bought at an auction last week, the hunting signs (estate sale), and the typewriter, which he scored at a local thrift store.

Isn't she beautiful!? It is a 1926 Underwood portable typewriter with a red faux bois (fake wood grain) finish. Here's a photo of one in great condition that sold for $350 on Etsy. They sold this typewriter in several finishes, including mahogany and green.

These metal hunting signs are so hot on eBay - I found similar signs ranging from $45 to $125. I love to imagine some big, burly hunter ripping the No Hunting sign off a tree as a trophy. Kind of a big "Eff You" to the Parks Service.

Here are a couple of vintage cameras: a Kodak Midget and a Baby Brownie. And a set of small brass stencils that slide together. They are sitting atop a red safe deposit box with painted gold trim.

Each one of the burlap sacks in this pile is different - most of them have great graphics and colors. Chris paid three dollars for all of them at a Lancaster County auction. Some were a little moldy, so we hosed them off and dried them in the sun. No more mold. But they still have that typical burlap smell. Is it possible to get rid of that? Anyone?

I've been wanting one of these potato chip stands for a while. I have the kind that you hang, but not a standing rack. I've seen lots of reproductions around, but I think this one is an oldie. I'm going to use it for displaying postcards or little bags of game pieces and whatnot.

I bought a few "Modern Kitchen" catalogs at Black Angus. These two feature the steel cabinets made by American and Morgan. I've become a little obsessed with those cabinets lately - especially after reading about all of the 1950s kitchens on Retro Renovation. This green & aqua kitchen might be my favorite.

This was our most expensive find: a Victorian-era birdcage on a stand that is a shorter than the ones I normally see. It isn't adjustable, either. Maybe it is chair-height so you could enjoy your canaries while drinking tea or playing cards.

But, more likely, it was a privy birdcage, so people could play with their bird while they did their dirty business. Yes - that sounds right. I'm going with that.