Learning Curves and Listings

New ventures require being stretched. Would you agree? To go out on a limb to  do what you love and hope to make a living from it is a scary thing. I think it takes balls and you cannot allow negative thoughts to influence you. No, no.. not good.

When I listed my first few items on my little shop not so very long ago, I crossed a huge (to me) chasm. And when I got my first couple of sales shortly after, I was encouraged. It motivated me to move forward. I'm pressing on! It's been a slow process at times because other demands have gotten in the way but I'm sticking to it. 

Do you know there are over 19 million items for sale on Etsy? Daunting, isn't it?  But I won't be discouraged (she said with fear and trembling) I can't let that kind of competition intimidate me. Nope. Besides, I have friends in high places. That's a faith statement!

I think I have some cool stuff. I just need to share it with a wider audience. I have my "fan" facebook account. Not much happening there (yet). I'm trying to make good with twitter but I never use it, otherwise. It's fluff to me. And some items get posted on Pinterest. I love that Etsy allows you to pin items to your boards with links to your shop.

I've not been at it that long. It will take time and I have that. I feel I've barely touched the surface considering how much stuff I've acquired. I have a lot of work ahead of me but I just love the quest of finding gems amongst the junk.

I did it!

This post is so seriously late.

I have finally launched my Etsy store! I only talked about it for.. oh, a year or more (definitely more) but that's so yesterday. Why look back? 

I also started a Facebook 'fan' page and sent invitations to all my peeps. I don't have hundreds and hundreds of 'friends' so the idea of them sharing with friends and so forth was a bit naive on my part. 

And then there's Pinterest. I've yet to link items to my store. I'm sure it's easy to figure out.

Is it not Murphy's law to finally get everything up and running and then suddenly get bombarded with all manner of things not related to what you know you need to be working on?

OK.. so we got a puppy. It's like having a child (I think) and I'm often tending to one incident or another. Can you see the difference in the two photos? They're taken 3 weeks apart. 

I also have a sudden trickle of freelance work as I've taken on a couple of clients with one of them having the potential to get very busy. And I committed to doing a rural postal route, filling in for 5 weeks of vacation time. That's not happened yet but it's in the works. Yikes! I'm sure it's all good.

I thought I'd be free to just list and list and list. Funny. It takes a lot longer than I realized. Well, I kinda had an idea but I want to be very accurate with my descriptions and good photos are mandatory and researching what items actually SELL for... not what they're listed for. I've already enjoyed a few sales which is very encouraging as they came shortly after launching my store.

This blog was intended to serve as a marketing tool. I better get on it, then and keep it updated.  

Fab Vintage Milch Handbag Score!

1950s/early 60s Milch alligator handbag. So chic.

It's been a long, cold winter but that hasn't stopped my quest for thrifting. I was suffering from a bit of cabin fever after the 'historic' blizzard last week that wasn't so historic in these parts, so I headed out to see if there were any treasures waiting to be found. 

I wandered into my no.1 spot. "It's Monday!," the manager exclaims, "We're not open. How'd you get in?" Ummm... through the front door that was unlocked. Sheesh! I knew they were closed on Mondays. Talk about getting my days mixed up. No biggie. I have the place across the street to browse in.

Overall, it's been a tad dull at my no.2 place for great finds but I thought I'd wander over to the purses for a look-see, cause you just never know. I saw the cutest black beaded purse with sparkly beaded flowers but I don't think it was vintage and I would never have an occasion to use it anyway. Besides, I don't like lugging around a purse. I find them cumbersome.

Then, I saw this brown vintage thing... uh, purse. Not my flavour but it was in good shape and so very vintage... 50s / early 60s. I bought it only because of it's age and condition. And most anything vintage in such good condition just makes me swoon.

Imagine my delight when my research led me to some sites that showed the potential value of my find.

It's a Milch alligator handbag and one such site selling exotic skin purses for a pretty penny has a Milch alligator purse, a different design but same era, with a $695 price tag! I emailed her to ask if she'd like to buy mine but she's not replied. Too bad. I know she would have made a great profit considering the price I had in mind. I'm so generous. 

Vintage Christmas Village

Hoping it was a Merry Christmas for you!

On one of my thrifting outings, my little eye spied treasure buried in a pile of Christmas rubble. A vintage Christmas village! I'm very sad to report that Santa is up in arms over the loss of Ruloph's head. I do believe he can be replaced as he's quite useless for guiding the team.

There were a number of bottle brush trees, a train, some tiny people and quite a few sections of plastic 'wrought iron' fence, two having ornate gates. Overall, the village has held up pretty well.

Currier & Ives Candle Jars

Perhaps not such a treasure but that depends on how one looks at things. This takes me back to the childhood 'magic' of my Christmas. 

These candle jars are not in perfect condition but I don't care about that. When they're lit up, they're giving me warm fuzzy feelings. 

I found the one and when I went to pay for it, along with several vintage mercury glass ornaments (score!), she says "That'll be 25 cents each for these." 

No problem!

The next day, I just had to pop in again and there was the other one. Crazy goodness.

Newly Found Lovelies...

Anytime I head out the door of my country home to do the grocery shopping, it always includes a trip to my two favorite thrift shops. The things I keep an eye out for are not what most others here would take an interest in. I'm glad for that as it means I have less competition. I've been collecting and researching for over 10 years now so I look treasures loosely based on my acquired 'knowledge'. I'm certainly no expert and I do buy duds but I'm also fussy about my finds. You could say it's a case of hit and miss. Mostly hit (in a good way)!

Yesterday, I was about done looking at the same old stuff and then my little eye spied these little gems. So cute! I really wanted a Christmas elf but didn't think I'd find one just like that, but I did.

After I finished at this thrift shop, I headed over to the other place which is quite a different type of store. You never know what you'll find there, including name brand clothing still bearing tags. I head straight for jewelry bin. Signed jewelry and tarnished silver pieces just look like junk to the sorters as they don't examine pieces like I do. Fine with me. Three new pretties to add to my collection. 

The wings on this brooch are on tiny springs. 

I just adore bug brooches which is odd
cause I never wear them.

This is stamped 'silver .925 taxco' but was
very tarnished. Not anymore. Great score!

I am dilly dallying...

Wherever did the term "dilly dally" come from anyway? Do you even know what it means? It must be old.  "Come along now, Children. Don't dilly dally."  Really.

OK.. so you get it now, right? My days of dilly dallying are drawing nigh. Sheesh... another ancient term but this IS a vintage blog after all. All this means is I have to make up my mind about what I'm going to do for income and just get at it. That's all I'm going to say about that for now. I shall think about it tomorrow.

I've had a couple of comments where interest was expressed about an item. Unfortunately, I can only reply here and then hope that person reads my comment/reply. 

That is why I added the "contact me" feature in the top left sidebar. See it? If you click on it, a little pop up window will ask you for your name, email address, subject and message. Then, I can reply to you personally. 

Bit of this and that...

Free form art glass.. 
a beautiful star shaped bottom with amber accents

Not an over-sized piece and so elegant

Well, I don't smoke but this
ashtray is one beautiful work of art.

Vintage goodness. Mid century pottery by
Quebec artist Maurice Chalvignac

Covered butter dish with a mix of mediums.
Aluminum tray and glass dish under a floral porcelain cover.

Eight Anchor Hocking etched 'boopie' glasses.
Gorgeous. All eight of them.

Vintage wool and angora collar, made in Italy.
Need I say more?

Sweetest pair of angel candle huggers, don't you think? 

This takes me back to the Christmas of my childhood.

1994 Lladro... Christmas angels. Perfection.

Do you know food tastes better when eaten
with elegant silver-plate cutlery?

Butterflies and apple blossom
Wood & Sons tiered dessert tray. 

Elegant. Pink. So fine.

Country style English milk glass gravy dish.
Yes, please.

Dressing up the Table in Gourmate Style

It's quite by accident that I discovered these funky Gourmates chrome serving dishes by Glo Hill. I'm quite pleased to have found several items on my thrifting journeys. They have stood the test of time and are certainly not out of place at any occasion's dinner table.

Just a little history on the company for your reading pleasure....

In 1946, Sol Globus officially registered his business, The Glo-Hill Corporation, in Montreal. Sol, his two brothers (Paul and Leo Globus), and his Brother-in-Law (Harry Hill) sensed the change that was on its way and took advantage of it. Together, the Globus Brothers and Harry Hill became 'Glo-Hill'. The Globus Brothers were of Belgian descent, their family having arrived in Canada at the beginning of the 1900's. The young brothers began their business in Montreal as cutlers and manufactured lovely carving sets and cutlery. Later, the business grew and began offering chrome holloware pieces used in home entertaining: serving trays, cocktail items and kitchen tools of various sorts. Situated right on the river in Montreal, Glo-Hill's factory was well-placed to take advantage of materials available from factories located along the Eastern Seaboard. Bakelite was imported from the USA and glass components were supplied straight out of Pennsylvania, a state that had become expert in glass manufacture (McKee, Glasbake, Jeannette Glass). Glo-Hill also partnered with Canadian manufacturers to provide materials for their products. Baribocraft, a Montreal company that was started by the Baribeau family, supplied exquisitely finished wooden items for Glo-Hill. Baribocraft wooden carving boards lined the inside of chrome trays that were styled and manufactured by Glo-Hill. What sets Glo-Hill apart from others is their exquisite designs. Paul Globus was considered the 'stylist' for Glo-Hill and it was his ideas that became the popular Glo-Hill designs we still see today. Glo-Hill became available to Canadians through many retail outlets. It was not unusual for Glo-Hill to be available both at high-end jewellery stores (some of the items they manufactured truly were 'upper-crust') and also available to anyone at local department stores.