Say it's only a paper

doll.

I got a bunch of 1960s/'70s UNCUT paper doll books from this guy who buys records from me.  I buy paper from him.

Aren't these neat?

 

Two were sold already - Mary, and Early America -- (which, in my opinion aren't the cutest ones) but the other three are up for grabs in my Etsy shop.

www.etsy.com/shop/necktieparty

You'll want to click on the Collectibles link. 

Some keywords for your searching pleasure: uncut paperdoll books

And for your listening pleasure:  The Mills Brothers singing Paper Doll

And here's Ella singing Paper Moon

 

accessories of awesomeness

including...

teeny tiny 1940s salesman sample alligator shoes

How teeny and tiny are they?  

Just look.

Utterly marveloso 1960s Lewis fabric handbag

perfectly Persian Delill trapunto purse late 1960s

Hernandez snakeskin shoes circa 1980

It's three - three - THREE early 1960s patent leather handbags in one!!

You can also remove the center panel on the above, and just have a plain vanilla black patent leather bag with buckle detailing.  

Next, a divinely and unbelievably awesome Don Anderson hat.  Nautical meets rose-ical.

Gianni Barbato handmade boots!

And MORE stuff.  Just go to my shop!

www.etsy.com/shop/friskyvintage

Adorable Adoptables issue no. 3

New kitties for you to consider making your own!!

Above is Raisin, who is SOOOOO much better-looking in person.  Raisin is, I believe, of a new generation of cats who have little tiny 8-cylinder engines in their throats, so loud and VROOM is his purring.  He's a happy guy who will make you happy, too.

And this is Roscoe.

Handsome Roscoe is staring into the future, i.e. a happy and somewhat cuddly future where he has a home and people to call his own.   

Could you be one of them?

Here's Bobby.

Bobby came to us from another planet entirely populated by adorable cats, some of whom travel to earth to experience what living happily with loving humans is like.  In exchange, Bobby will share his out-of-this-world sweetness, playfulness, and loveability.


Next up, our little calico lady.

This is the very graceful Juno, who is working on her special dance series entitled, 'Adopt Me and I'll Love You Forever.'  In addition to her terpsichorean talents, she also is an experienced ball player and champion cuddler.

Next is the very special, and completely awesome Moonshine.

Dear Moonie has only three legs, but according to the people who study these things, he is three times more loveable, three times more playful, and significantly more handsome than other leading cats.   You just have to watch him furiously chase a ball to know that one little leg missing means nothing to him.

You can visit all of these charmers, plus Leni, who appeared in Adorable Adoptables issue no. 2,  at the Petco at 9717 Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia.

Adorable Jasmine from Adorable Adoptables issue no. 2 came down with kitty sniffles, and had to be sent to Wellness, which is PAWS's in-house vet clinic.  She may return to Petco, or may be adopted through another PAWS adoption spot.  But she WILL get adopted sooner or later.  We wish our little doll the very best.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

A photo essay from my fascinating life!!

Last Sunday, we got it in our heads to go to Cape May because a) we adore it, and plan to move there, and b) I'm renting a space in the Cape May Antiques Center, and I wanted to see if I sold anything.  

The day started, like all our weekend days, at the Philly's (not very) famous Quaker City flea market.

 

We were there kind of early, which explains the sparse crowd above.  

Somebody was selling...

Part of a confessional.  My husband took the opportunity to ask for forgiveness for his sins.  His most egregious sin is leaving his crumpled up paper napkins on my kitchen table after he eats.  That drives me insane.  (Yo, sweetie, the trash can is only three feet away.) And when he cooks, anything he's used that came in a can, he leaves the empty cans in the sink.  If that's not an actionable offense, I don't know what is.

We came upon this

And he said something hilarious about the picture on the left, and I thought, 'Ooh, I gotta put that on my blog.'  But now I forget what he said.

There was only one find, but it's a super-neato cool one, to wit:

TWENTY-ONE Dark Shadows novels.  And one plain vanilla gothic novel by the author of the rest, Marilyn Ross.  

Back in the day, they would put out paperback novels based on the characters from popular shows.  To this day, I remember the opening line from what I think was a Columbo novel:  

                         "The girl was very young, very beautiful, and very dead."

Going to the car to go to NJ.

For a small flea market, Quaker City gets gajillions of people.  They've opened another parking lot to handle the crowds.

We missed church that day, but I read my Bible in the car on the way down.  It was early when were getting close to our destination, but as we were near Woodbine, NJ there was a roadside antiques store that was open, so we went in, to find

History's most cockamamie lamp.  If it had been metal rather than chalk, I'd have bought it.  We bought some other stuff, an slightly less wild lamp, a piece of adorable retro jewelry, and two lady and gent wall plaques made from black coral.  I'd give you the name of the shop,but I forget the name.

The back of the shop opens to this big field, which looked to me like some agriculture was going on.  My husband said, 'Yeah, way in the back there, it's an orchard.'  But I wanted to know what this green stuff in front of it was:

 He said, 'Oh, they're just weeds.  

If they're really weeds, they're the world's most organized, disciplined ones.

There was another shop down the road, Teaberry Something or Other, but although the sign screams '60 DEALERS!!!' as least 59 of those dealers are selling new, Made in China jewelry and home decor junk.

It wasn't too long before we arrived at our destination.

Wanna see my case?

My case is not the only one carrying awesome, must-have stuff (it's just the best one), there's lots of other cool things to buy (not as awesome and must-have as my stuff, but desirable nevertheless.)

But here's the kind of thing that can give your antique co-op a bad name.

A piece of phony baloney 'Roseville' (yeah, right) made in China.  This is one of the WORST examples I've ever seen.  In REAL Roseville, the colors are part of the glaze, which goes into the glazing oven, or whatever they call it.  The example above was cold-painted, i.e. painted by some grunt with an air-brush. 

If I were running an antiques co-op, fakes and repros would not be permitted.  Actually, I'd be VERY tough on what gets in and what doesn't.  

What doesn't would be new anything, ESPECIALLY new Made in China anything, no new craft items, no new clothes, nothing gross or tasteless.  Everything would have to be legitimately old, and not offensive to my sensibilities.  Thank you.

After we left, we went into Cape May proper, to get a look at the house we're planning to buy.

ha ha.  That's the Inn of Cape May.  It would be a little big for just the two of us.

We ate at... well, it was very OK, but not so awesome that I'm going to give the restaurant's name.  Because I care.

Where you DON'T want to go in Cape May is a certain white tablecloth Italian restaurant in the Washington Street mall (it's an open air strolling dealie, not a real mall).  I had a seafood stew at this restaurant, and the shrimp were not deveined.  I've worked in tons of restaurants, and a lapse like that would have have heads rolling in the kitchen, and at the very least the chef coming to the table to beg for mercy.  The treatment I got?  Not only was there no apology, but even though I send the entree back, and didn't want a replacement, they still added it to the bill. 

The Fish Market, also on the mall, is a decent place to go, plus it's the only restaurant in Cape May that features a man wearing

a lobster costume.

Here's what I consider the number one attraction of the mall:

This is in the window of a toy store or a kids clothing store.  The little puppets bounce up and down in an adorable little dance.  I could look at it all day.  It's THAT cute.

My husband doesn't see the appeal.  Here's the (juvenile) seashore thing he could look at all day:

This is -- or at least was, pre-Hurricane Sandy -- on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ.  Smoke comes out of the ship and the pirate's gun, and the parrot's head moves.  I could park my hubs in front of this, wander the rest of the boardwalk, return to him two hours later, and he'd still be staring at this with awe on his face.

Here's some more stuff:

The above is Cape Island Baptist Church.  This is where we go then we're down there.  You should go.  Pastor Berger gives a very fine sermon, and they have a good choir. 

Some pretty nature:

1940s deer

lamp!!

Amazing condition in mind-blowing, eye-searing lime green!!

 AND it works!

Above is our young friend Lester, who is demonstrating how to turn the light on.  Note that it's not essential that you use your teeth.

Wanna buy it?  Then go visit my Etsy shop:
www.etsy.com/shop/necktieparty

ULTRA Mid Century Modern

fiberglass drapes!!!

 For your Mid Century windiz!!!

'Windiz' is Philadelphian plural for 'windows.'  Windeh is the singular form, as in 'Close the windeh, the rain wooder is gettin in here.'

Most bizarre

 

 job interviews.

See, there was an piece in Slate today, by a woman who wrote about her most bizarre interview.  It was a doozy, and while I haven't had the experience of interviewing with a lunatic who proposed marriage on the follow-up interview, I have had a number of crazy interviews, but two stand head and shoulders above the others.

The first one was shortly after I quit a horrible job.  (Actually, the job wasn't all that horrible.  But my boss was an idiot scumbag prick, and if there's one personality type I will not suffer gladly, it's idiot scumbag pricks.)

The interview was for a marketing/writing job at a small office furniture distributor.  Or maybe they were manufacturers.  I forget.  The place was run by a set of identical twins,  Ed and Fred.  Or maybe they were Ned and Ted, or Jed and Dred.  (See, I don't wanna get sued.) 

I first met with Ed/Ned/Jed, whose gargantuan office desk would have made Louis B. Mayer jealous.  Then he took me around the warehouse.  The good thing about Ed/Ned/Jed was the fact that his egomania was front and center.  (The desk was the very least of it.  It was his personality that was the tip-off.)  I wouldn't have had to take the job, and down the pike realize I was working for a monster.

The above isn't a monster.  It's some kind of ungulate.  Clip art of egomaniacs is difficult to find.

I knew right then that I didn't want the job, but rather than say that straight out, I handed him the opportunity to save face.  When he asked how much I'd want to be earning in five years, I said something like '$400,000 a year at the very minimum.'   

Instead of pulling the plug right there, and sending me on my way, he handed me over to his brother Fred/Ted/Dred.  

Fred/Ted/Dred's desk looked like it had begun life in an elementary school principal's office, circa 1965.  Fred/Ted/Dred appeared to be the polar opposite of his brother, both desk-wise and personality-wise: low-key, pleasant, very chill.  I'd have accepted a job offer from him in a New York minute.

Several years later, I read that one of them, probably the less palatable one, was in jail.  Some white collar crime, I think.

My next most bizarre interview:

This was a few years after the one above, and was for a copywriter job with the Big Cable Company.  (I won't name it, but it's the one with headquarters in the City of Bothersome Love.)

The guy who was interviewing me, whose name may or may not have been Sandy Somebody, came out into the waiting room to get me.  So I rise from my seat, and Sandy Somebody gets the exact same look on his face that Richie Cunningham got when the (unbeknownst to him, very tall) girl in the Statue of Liberty costume rose from her chair.  Like 'Where does her height stop at??"*

  *This scene is in one of the early Happy Days episodes.

I'm about 5'11" in heels, Sandy Somebody was maybe 5'6".  I have a lifetime of dealing with people shorter than myself, and never before had I noticed an interviewer even registering our height disparities.

So we go into his office, and I notice that he's checking to see if I have a ring on my wedding ring finger.  Odd, right?  Especially when you consider that Sandy looked to be in his late '50s, and by then I assumed -- being the utter dope I often am -- that he'd gotten his youthful horndog-ery out of his system.

There was no ring there, so the interview went fairly normally.  He gave me a writing assignment, which he wanted me to take home, complete, mail to him, and then a follow-up interview would be scheduled. 

 I did what I could with the writing sample, and once it was polished and shined up and all pretty, I sent it in.  Two days later, I got a call from Sandy Somebody to come in for the next interview.

He starts the interview by saying that what I wrote was not quite what he was looking for, but then he instantly began to praise it to the high heavens, while at the same time...

staring intently at my legs.  I am very VERY dense about men, always have been, but even I could see that he was far less interested in my writing ability than in my physical assets.

A few days later he offered me the job, and although I would have been making more than I was at the job I was currently at, and it would have been more along the lines I what I wanted to do, I turned him down.  

Three or four years after that, the same job was advertised in the paper, and I sent in a resume, hoping that Sandy Somebody would have moved on, or retired, or been brought up on charges.  I got a call a week later from Sandy about scheduling an interview.  I asked, 'Is the job working directly for you?'  He said yes.  I then told him thanks, but no thanks.  Amazingly, he was puzzled by this.

If you saw The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon twenty years ago or so, you may have been Sandy Somebody come on to give the Big Cable Company's donation to the cause.