C**K a doodle doo

Can you believe this Gamecocks Varsity Jacket lasted an entire weekend at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Hudson, New York?
I can; it's a piece of made-in-China shit--- polyvinyl-chloride -acrylic- polyurethane blend. Cleaning instructions:
"Wipe with a Damp Cloth".

Yes it's for sale, but don't expect to find it hanging in my shop.
You'll have to inquire....

Come on in and make an offer. The highest bidder gets it, and 100% of the proceeds will go to Animalkind of Hudson, NY.  Animalkind feeds, spay/neuters,  houses, provides medical care, and finds homes for stray and feral cats all over Columbia County. 

All-creatures.org/ak/index.html 

If I were a rich girl

this would totally float my boat

http://cgi.ebay.com/EXCEPTIONAL-1920s-ADAIR-PARIS-BEADED-FLAPPER-BLOUSE_W0QQitemZ200218321458QQihZ010QQcategoryZ52414QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
.......

hanging out to dry in hudson

It's supposed to be 80 degrees today.
So I'm pulling out my summer wardrobe.



A customer asked me yesterday:
"Why don't you post pictures of all your new merchandise on your blog?"


I said: "Because I'm lazy."

I love my job, but If I didn't have to work, (and had a lot o' money), I would travel the world and photograph clotheslines.

Has that coffee table book been written already?

Hello Goodbye

God Bless Melissa for fitting into every itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny dress that passes through my shop doors.
Yesterday she picked up two dresses that I had just put out;
This gauzy yellow embroidered sweetheart of a cotton day dress:
And this fab little blue cotton 60s party dress that had been cropped to mini length:Check out the fun stringy-yoke detail in the back:
We also love Melissa for her endearing and consistent habit of wearing her purchases right out the door into the night.

On Topic: The Manhattan Vintage Show Feb 8

I've been totally stalling on my Manhattan Vintage Show report (Feb 8, NYC), partly because it was sort of underwhelming, but mostly because they don't allow photography there, and I tend to rely heavily on pictures for my blogs since I can't write for shit.

They call it a "show", because much of the merchandise is priced into the stratosphere -- dealers love to show off some of their finds without any intent of selling it--- why don't they just dangle a tag off it that says "You can't have this".

OK, OK, ... sour grapes, I know.
The truth is, there are plenty of rich designers and fashionistas at these things, and things do sell for what seems like astronomical prices to me (what with my upstate picker mentality and all). If I were smart I'd get my act together and go down there and sell myself (uh- I mean, my merch), but then I'd have to spend a lot of money, do a lot of work, and raise all my prices dramatically-- all things I have no inclination to do. I did in fact see there three different items --in three different booths---that used to belong to me, and were purchased in my shop. One party dress priced $850 that I'd sold for $75 (what- Did I miss a Chanel label or something?), one 60's boucle suit for $270 that I'd sold for about $50, and one awful 80's schmatta by Guy Laroche for $60 that I had sold in a $100 box lot. These were all things I was delighted to get rid of at the time I sold them.

Anyway, I went there expecting to be overwhelmed with the fabulousness of eighty-some vintage dealers from all over the country all in one place, yadda yadda, etc etc,--- but I was not, even though I truly enjoyed it. I also had expected to feel like a small fish in a big pond, but I did not. I came away feeling like these dealers were my peers, not my superiors-- just because they're in Manhattan charging higher prices.
I expected to get scads and scads of compliments on the dress I was wearing... and I did, thank-you-very-much J.F., even though I was advised to get over myself and just dress practically; that noone would be looking at me, for God's sake.

After almost 3 hours walking around the show,
I just wanted to buy Something, and get out of there to find a shoe store. I hadn't listened to the advice about wearing comfortable shoes, and 10 hours in my 4-inch high heels were totally ruining my day.

I finally found and bought this dress, which I thought was totally fabulous but had no idea at the time would be a perfect fit. It was $50 and I'm going to have to keep it and wear it.

I stopped at an H&M right after I left the show, to find something for my aching feet. Talk about extreme contrasts. I had never been in an H&M. It's like the Wal-Mart of trendy fashion. Pretty awful, but I was very thankful for the made-in-china sneakers I picked up and changed into immediately at the cash register; $12.90.

Oh well. I guess that's about it--Over and Out.

End of an Era; the Watnot closes :(

Here's another blog entry that has nothing to do with my vintage clothing shop, but I spent so much time on it (for my myspace blog) that I decided to duplicate it here. The pictures all get side-cropped on eblogger; but you can see them full view -or bigger- on my flickr page if you're inclined (just click on them)--.....

More of my obsessions....

I drove up to the old Watnot Shop Auction Barns yesterday to a)make sure they were still there, and b) get a pic for the big blog I've been working on this week.


I was too late for the magic-hour light, but I decided to get out of the car and snoop around a bit; you know... peek into windows...look for stories....


'Til I realized my life was in danger:



Woops -- oh right---this was not to be one of my trespassing blogs....so like a good little scout I got the hell out of there.






At least 95% of what's in these pictures was acquired at the Watnot Shop.
Richard and Lois Tanner, who owned and ran the shop for over 25 years, cleaned out houses in Hudson, and old farmhouses for miles around.


What wasn't sold at the auction barn got put into storage or brought over to the shop on Warren street.

(I did manage to refrain from buying this vintage pudding.)

I've been shopping there for about 13 years, rarely going a whole week without at least dropping in to say Hello.

You just never knew when fresh old musty dusty merch was going to get churned up from the nooks and crannies. Mostly it would be same old stuff, but sometimes there would be a new cigar box of treasures on the counter, or a heap of old aprons, jar of buttons, or funky vintage $20 amateur masterpiece to pounce on...


...Or maybe a flyswatter for my collection...


But right after Christmas these signs appeared on the shop doors:
....


This is one of many piles of booty I got last week when the flotsam and jetsam was really getting churned up good for the big closing day. I have to admit, the blow of losing the Watnot was softened significantly by the final days of treasure hunting.


The ritual is to bring the stuff home, fondle it, sometimes research it on ebay, and then file it into my big trinket chest.






Just a few of the categories:
Dice and Jax:

Old Gumball Charms

Not to be confused with old celluloid gumball charms:



Marbles...



..Not to be confused with toy balls:




Old Cuff buttons:

Thimbles and sewing tools:


Rings...

(note the Chex Cereal Secret Agent Decoder ring and the Kool-Aid Treasure Hunt Ring.....)


Teeny tiny tintypes (these make great dollhouse portraits)

Tokens, Dog Licenses, Play Money, etc

Charm Bracelets

Religious Medals


Rosaries...

and Pocket Saints





and of course loads and loads of Hudson Memorabilia ---Hudsoniana?--- which will someday be bequeathed to Historic Hudson or the DAR museum.

The hula swizzle stick and
girlie sandwich stake are two of my most-favorite-ever finds. Both from "Joe's Hawaiian Paradise Lounge, Hudson, NY".
.... What I would give to travel back in time to visit a tiki lounge in Hudson.....hmmm

I wish Lois and Richard the best in their retirement, but I'm going to seriously miss the Watnot Shop.

I am Not an Animal!

I'm behind in my blogging.
I've been working on my New Year's resolution of cleaning up my clutter and getting my shit organized. Hardly worth blogging about but here I am...

The upstairs of my shop (where the public isn't allowed), has been a pretty scary Collyer-Brothers-Syndrome type of place for a couple of years now. That is, until this week, when I finally decided to tackle it.

Some would've looked at the mess and considered me at least borderline-disposophobic (google it), but really I'm quite sure I'm neither that messy nor compulsive.
I just hate waste is all, Is that so wrong?

Today I filled an entire contractor's bag with fabric remnants from my massive collection of extra "stuff". Just a baby step really---but this is indeed challenging, because (if you've read any of my previous blogs), you know I really can make use of some of the most obscure castoffs---eventually. It's kind of beautiful thing when you want to create something and all the materials are just lying around your house (if you can find them...).

Another recent baby step I took was throwing away the bag of hems I'd been collecting from when I hem people's pants in the shop. I had had this fantasy of someday making a big humble quilt made entirely out of Hudsonians' pants' hems. Long dark strips stitched together log-cabin style...it was gonna be so cool ...Then one day a little voice inside me just said "Oh Jesus Get Real, Lisa", and I threw them out. (The fantasy lingers, however).

It is a vicious cycle, though. For every successful purge there is always some sort of counterbalancing event that keeps the boxes piling up. An estate cleanout, or A gluttonous acquisition of cheap, justifiable goods --like recently, with the closing of the Watnot shop (more on this later) .

Sometimes a relapse comes in the discovery a new thing worth hoarding.
A few years ago someone dumped a huge buttload of old ceremonial Oddfellows' costumes on my doorstep. Mostly boring plain muslin robes --but I just couldn't throw them out . I decided to dye them all kinds of RIT dye colors, in hopes of making them more sellable ((and BTW I'm still selling them to this day)). At the time, though, I had no place to put them, and they sat stored in garbage bags in my basement for ages. To make matters worse, I became obsessed with all the fun colored lint that I was harvesting out of my dryer, and I became a lint collector.

Not long into the accumulation of lint I was vindicated, however, when someone was curating a local art exhibit about things that people SAVED.
My big jar of lint sat on a white pedestal in the middle of that gallery and was a huge hit.