Not Too Spooky!

Hey everyone! Long time, no see, right? I've been really busy stocking the shops and training for my new part-time job, but I thought that I should spend some time today updating you about what is going on at Candy Apple Crafts these days.

Since fall is technically here (it doesn't feel much like it, though), I've been trying to get as much fall and winter themed vintage up in the shops as I possibly can. This is a good time to start shopping for the holidays, and preparing for the cold months.

Etsy has the best selection of Halloween themed items in my vintage collection. I have a children's animal costume pattern (for a very young child) from the 70s. It's itty-bitty, which means the finished costume would be absolutely adorable!  I also have a rather spooky piece of medical equipment from the 1910s, designed to frighten away your nasal drip problem. It is still in the box, for display only, and probably was never used.  I also have a set of ceramic owl face macrame beads (you can use them with crochet or on a stuffed toy, I'm sure), and a few other things. I hope you'll stop by!

I also took the time to make a couple of not-so-spooky Halloween monster figurines. These will probably end up being "one offs," which means one-of-a-kind items. The first is a furry-toed monster pigeon. This idea came from a random search that came in to my Etsy store, under the keywords, "Furry-toed monster." I decided I would make something for anyone else who came to my store looking for that. So, eventually, it turned into this clawed and scaled monster pigeon....don't ask me why. 

Basically, this is just me letting my imagination and my crafting scissors go wild! Don't worry. The claws look sharp, but they are very flexible plastic.

This furry-toed monster figurine can stand up on its own, but I'm pretty sure it would not hold up under rough child's play.

So, after I had so much fun making that one, I decided to make something a little more in keeping with the retro monster movies theme.  You all know how much I enjoy retro things!  Since I don't take myself too seriously around here, I chose to reference the movie that makes fun of monster movies--Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

Mine looks rather convincingly like a tomato on the back (and I'm pretty proud of myself for that), but it has a comically menacing expression on its face. It's all cartoon and no bite!

Mine is only an unofficial movie reference, since we all know the real Killer Tomatoes wear better disguises! You can disarm mine by playing the worst pop music you can think of.

To the person who just got my movie reference, you get 20 points. High five!

If you have any questions or special requests for this time of year, now is the best time to ask! Leave a comment and I will respond right away.

A Little Off-Color Humor Here...Don't Mind Me

As we get older, we may not be able to keep our looks or our health, but we can at least keep our sense of humor, right? On that note, welcome to Extreme Vintage Hunting--Potty Humor Edition!

I have had this little ceramic cup with one handle on it, sitting on my bookshelf for a couple of years, now. I had hesitated to make it available for sale, because something about it told me that it was a joke, and possibly a crude one.  I just didn't know what the story was.

Well, it turns out that I was right!

This happens to be a Victorian miniature chamber pot.  Yes, you read that right. It's a bit of subversive potty humor, probably meant for a baby doll.  The outside reads "Morning Exercise" (are we talking about "eat more fiber" or the exercise servants got when carrying it out of the room?). The inside of the chamber pot has a little off-center stamped emblem that depicts a "Goo-goo" eye. I think it's a target to hit.

So...yeah.  Who said Victorians were all the prudish type?  That person was obviously very, very wrong.

My research has uncovered that these were made in Germany in the late 1800s.  The date really does make sense, since the chamber pot was eventually forgotten with the advent of the indoor water closet.  Little girls like to have a miniature version of their house, so I'm sure as the chamber pot was left behind (oops, I made a pun!), so was the market for these doll potties in turn-of-the-century Germany.

However, if you want a genuine collectible for your Victorian doll collection (or just like a nice, subversive dose of potty humor every now and then to keep life interesting), here you go!  It's actually in pretty nice shape, considering the age.  I guess it wasn't used much. Okay, I think I hope it wasn't used at all!  As one of my friends put it (he just couldn't resist), you never know what fun little "nuggets" you'll find when you buy vintage.

P.S. While we're on the subject of old potty humor, I thought I'd mention my vintage cedar outhouse salt and pepper shakers. You can find them here, although eventually I may move them over to Etsy to keep the chamber pot company.

A One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

I've been trying to step up my game when it comes to pom pom creatures and the like.  A couple of days ago, Mom started humming the Sheb Wooley tune about a Purple People Eater, and she suggested I make the creature.  I polled my facebook audience, who gave me the green light, and this is what I came up with!

 Here he is, in progress. You can see some washers on my worktable. I had to glue some inside the feet to keep him from falling over.  The holes in his clarinet like horn are drawn with paint, and I decided to put them on both sides of the horn, so you can see them from the back as well. After all, it's an alien!

You can also see uncut felt which I used in the project, a failed purple horn (the white shows up much better in my opinion), and just over my hand there is a messed-up poodle on the table, which I keep there to cheer me on, I suppose. :)

Don't worry. According to this song, the purple people eater is just here to play music on tv.  He only eats purple people, anyway, so I'm pretty sure you are safe!

I only made the one purple people eater (or at least my best representation of the song lyrics), and I put him here, in my Etsy shop.  You can go there to see more pictures of him, if you'd like!

 Meanwhile, here's the original artist, singing the song to a puppet (I can't see the puppet very well, though), way back in 1958.

Enjoy the 50s nostalgia!

Funny Thing Happened at the Post Office Today

Earlier today, I got the notification that I had sold this vintage knitting bag. (Sorry, folks, this was the last one I had).

So, my normal practice when listing big, hard-to-package items like this is to hold them back until I find a box that will fit them nicely, in case I have to ship them out right away.

Well, apparently during the Christmas season I forgot this practice for one item. One item!  It was enough to create a domino effect, though. I ended up having to steal the box this knitting basket had been sitting in, so I could ship that other thing. That left me without a box for this beauty.

So when I got the notification, I looked around my huge box stash to find one.  Mind you, I have a stockpile of giant boxes that hundreds of bored children could lovingly transform into playhouses, box cars, boats, and airplanes.  Out of this huge pile, I managed to find one I'd purchased at a local box store, which happened to be called a "mirror box."

For those who have never dealt with those, you should know it's a narrow, vertical box with giant black billboard lettering on the sides that says "Fragile. Glass. This End Up."  In my haste, since the post office was closing in 15 minutes, I packed the box and ran out the door without using my trusty sharpie to scratch through these markings.

Now, this haste wouldn't have been necessary if it was any regular sized-box, but this was a huge one.  Most post offices have a drop-off bin near the post office boxes that is accessible even when the check out counter is not.  However, there is frequently some person who tries to shove a box that is too big into this bin, and jams the door shut.  If you've ever used this bin, you may know what I mean. I sure hope you aren't the person who keeps jamming it shut.  If you are, please stop.

Anyway, I didn't want to be the drop-bin-jammer-person today, so I had to get it there, fast, and turn it over to the postal workers at the check out counter.  So, picture me driving down the road (obeying all the traffic laws, mind you) with a giant "Fragile, Glass" box sitting in the seat next to me like a grouchy passenger, and you know what rush hour traffic was like for me today.

I got to the post office and fumbled my way into the inside office, through two glass doors that are not automatic. Ahead of me in the line was a lady mailing preserved bones, as her double armload of small boxes, and child-sized plastic shipping bin proudly stated.  Animal or human?  I was afraid to ask. Just another weird tidbit there...

My box already had postage on it, so all I had to do was drop it off.

And....drop it I did!

I bet I gave everyone in the line a minor heart attack. I was reaching to hand my giant box to the clerk, the massive black lettering screaming to everyone, "I'm fragile! Look at me!" when the lower corner caught on the desk and knocked it out of my hands. It fell and bounced several times (by the way, sustaining no damage whatsoever, since I pack with 2 inches of padding around the item on all sides so an elephant can step on it without leaving a dent), and I think I could have heard a pin drop in that crowded room.

"No, it's not glass! NOT FRAGILE. It's okay. That's just something marked on the box," I told the clerk loudly so everyone could hear.  After another awkward second, talking resumed again in the line.  I walked out of that post office laughing at myself, and decided I should share it with you.

It's rough, shipping these huge packages, huh?  I'm sure it isn't rough getting them. I'm confident my customer is going to be happy to receive this brightly-colored beauty in the mail, and that's why I'm in the business.

What's your weirdest post office moment in recent memory? Leave me a comment telling all about it. I'd love to hear from you!

Announcing: Room to Create Sale

JcPenny's recently announced that they are tired of sending out circulars and running constant coupon sales, so they have decided to lower their baseline price on everything in their stores and have done with it.  Taking a page from their book, I'm having a vintage sale in my stores, but there won't be any coupon codes to enter or anything like that.

Why am I doing this? Frankly, my house is not a warehouse, and it's getting a little crowded in here. I need some room to create. I need some more storage space.  My pom pom collection is multiplying like Star Trek tribbles.  Yeah.  All of that.

On Etsy, vintage prices have already been significantly reduced.  On Artfire, expect the rollout to be more gradual, since I have 243 items (as of writing this) to adjust, and that is taking awhile.

Now, for two very important things shoppers might want to know:

• Please note that I have small, lightweight items marked with free (to the US) or very reduced (to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK) secondary shipping.  This is the shipping charged for the second thing if you buy two.  I wish it were possible to note on the items themselves that for many of them, I could probably manage to fit three or more of such items in the same package without raising the shipping price more than a penny or two. Maybe not at all (weight-metered mail is silly this way).  However, if you bought 3 or more, the checkout process on the site would probably automatically overcharge you on shipping. If you'd like to buy an armload of something, please contact me and I can bundle the items and get you an accurate (not an estimated) shipping price. If the order is big enough, I might even give you an extra discount on the items, just to say thank you. You might be amazed about how much I can save you this way.
• All shipping prices reflect US postal service rates, plus about $0.60 for the cost of the box and the packing around your items, and a few drops of gasoline that get used up to take your box to the post office.  If you think they are too high, please, please write your Congressman or the Postmaster General and beg on behalf of online retailers for something about this to change.

If you read this blog and decide to buy from me, I will throw a small party in your honor. Unfortunately, you won't be able to personally attend. ;)  I can promise you that I will dance and sing your package all the way to the post office for you, and when you get it and open it, I hope you will start dancing and singing for joy as well.

Thank you, as always, for being a fan of CandyAppleCrafts and Sweet Old Things!  Please visit again soon.

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!

In 1953, a girl named Gayla Peevey recorded the lesser-known Christmas classic, "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas."  A nickle and dime campaign across the U.S. followed, and thousands of children donated their small change to buy a hippopotamus for Christmas.  In fact, they were successful in purchasing the first hippos to live on display in the Oklahoma City Zoo.  I think it's an interesting story, and I love the song.

 Here's the original song recording:

Edited: I just found this video of an adorable little girl singing along with Gayla Peevey at a recent event at the Oklahoma City Zoo:

I found this friendly hippo the other day, and thought of Gayla.  It turns out it's actually a collectible print by the palette knife painter and collage artist Edna Vierra, who made these cute pieces of art throughout the 50s and 60s.  This one is circa 1969.  Just listed it today.  Don't you think it would be really fun in a nursery? 

This print can be found here

The popularity of the poodle Christmas ornaments (over 40 sold, and more sales are still coming) makes me think about trying more animals, perhaps inspired by Vierra's playful take on them.

By the way, I have marked a good deal of my vintage to free shipping on Artfire with more deals planned, and I've also expanded my stock of poodle ornament colors (only available on Etsy).

Vintage TV Shows, Part 3 Sanford and Son

Lamont and Fred (image http://epguides.com/SanfordandSon/)

One of my local television networks recently started broadcasting reruns of the television show Sanford and Son.  In case you have never seen the show, it is about an old man and his son, Fred and Lamont Sanford, and their vintage/ junk selling business.  The main stage set, the living room, is loaded with vintage goodies of all eras, and the subject matter really hits home with me.

I sell vintage, and I see the charm of it.  Like the show illustrates, even vintage selling is hard work, but old things have beauty and value.  That seems to be reflected in the relationship of father and son in the show.  Besides that, I think it's hilarious!

I am addicted to watching Sanford and Son now.  From the "name that vintage prop" game that I tend to play when watching the show (for instance, recognizing LuRay dishes in one scene or California pottery in another), to the extreme situations the characters find themselves in, I am soaking this up.

In honor of the show, I finally put together a collection on Artfire of things that reminded me of the television series.  If you are a fan of the show, or just like vintage selling, laugh with me!

Sanford and Sons, A Tribute Collection. ...

Curated By: CandyAppleCra...

ArtFire.com

Craft Tutorials

A Humorous Shipping Caper

Here's a little light humor for a change of pace...

The other day, I got an order for a large curio shelf that I had listed on Etsy some time ago.  the thing is, I didn't have a box big enough to ship it.  Two days, lots of driving, and two box stores later, I finally did! 

But that is not the funny part of the story.

While at the second box store, I purchased about 25 cubic feet of packing peanuts.  For any idea of how big that is, just picture a bag just over two feet in diameter and about six feet tall.  In fact, it was so big that I disappeared behind it, but not enough to miss the slightly panicked glances other customers gave the bag that seemed to be walking itself to the counter.

The proprietor's wife at the counter gave me a funny look and said, "I am wondering how you plan to take that home with you," as she looked significantly at my two-door Honda Civic in front of the building.

"I think it will fit in the back seat of the cab, if nothing else," I said, way too confidently.

What followed was a 20 minute struggle with a human-sized bag of peanuts, in a parking lot that was well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit at high noon.  I was sweating bullets, and not just because of the heat!  The store owner even came out to help me and my dad (who had come along to help me out), and said in a deadpan sort of way, "Hmm, this is kind of a square peg, round hole kind of thing."

Yes, I suppose a human-sized bag of shipping peanuts going into a compact car really does constitute a volume logistics problem of epic proportions!

After a couple more minutes of wrestling, the three of us figured out that the human-sized bag of peanuts needed to bend in the middle, and, unlike their human counterparts, giant white bags of shipping peanuts don't have waists.  Perhaps that is one reason why we never hear about criminals stuffing bags of packing peanuts into trunks in this country...

I had just suggested that we open the bag and fill the trunk with loose peanuts (okay, I was getting desperate), when Dad figured out we could lower all the back seats and stuff it through from the trunk.  Two people worked on stuffing the back end of the peanuts bag into the opening while another pulled on the top end from inside the cab.  With a little cramming, we bent the bag and stretched the sides out a little, allowing it to bulge like leavened dough into every crevice of the trunk and into the cab.  Some peanuts were broken, but at least the trunk closed!

The drive home felt a little ridiculous with a giant white bulging thing taking up the whole back seat, but it could have been worse.  I could have had to drive home with the trunk open.  At least now I have enough packing materials for a couple hundred more shipments!  Lesson learned:  Peanuts are designed to take up space, so bring a big vehicle if you are going to buy them, unless you are planning to pack your whole car in peanuts and ship it somewhere...

Ah, the trials of shipping large things!  At least now I can begin reducing my shipping rates.

Now that you've laughed with me (and at me) it's your time to share.  What is the weirdest thing you've ever hauled in your car?