Grey Gardens at the thrift store

I am a fan of many things. One of these things is the story of mother & daughter Big Edie and Little Edie. They were the subjects of a 1970's documentary titled "Grey Gardens" (which is also the name of the estate they lived in). To put it shortly, theirs is a riches-to-rags Depression-era story. Socialite Edith Ewing Bouvier (yes, those Bouviers, sister of John Vernou Bouvier III and an aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) marries up-and-coming Southern attorney Phelan Beale (grandson of John D. Phelan, an Alabama Speaker of the House and Alabama Supreme Court Justice). They have 3 children, oldest being Edith Bouvier Beale (Little Edie). When the stock market crash of 1929 happened, Phelan's law firm went under Phelan's philandering caused his marriage to go under as well, and that left Edith (Big Edie) living year-round in the former couple's summer home in East Hampton. Little Edie was coaxed into living with her mother, and they spent the next several decades destitute, with mother refusing to sell the dilapidating mansion. They were perhaps the original 'crazy cat ladies', living with dozens of cats in absolute squalor. Also featured as roommates were raccoons. One scene of the documentary has Little Edie reading aloud about astrology. Big Edie, a former singer, sings 'Tea For Two' haphazardly in bed.

The documentary has since become a cult hit, spawning a second documentary using unused footage from the original documentary, a 2009 HBO film production, a broadway musical, and, most recently, the release of another documentary, titled 'That Summer', which features footage recorded prior to the idea of the documentary.

This backstory is necessary to 'get' this entry's picture, a grouping of things I saw on one shelf at a thrift store. It includes some of the more celebrated moments of the film, outlined above, with the Scorpio astrological plate, the teapot (which incidentally is a typewriter with the header 'Garden Club'), the hand painted raccoon dish, and the 2 cats.

I bought the strange white cat holding mice from their tails, but left the other things to find happy homes.

Insecure Baker's Rack

Today's perusings...

Original art (which I brought home)

A Maxfield Parish print, which Other Half liked, despite the fading

A new tarot deck with a unicorn illustration (I collect them both; unicorns and tarot decks), and a gorilla

An insecure baker's rack that doesn't want to be touched (incidentally, I have the same vase that is pictured with)

And an accidentally hilarious toy placement (and the face he is making doubles the fun)

Garfield!

I found this awesome Garfield Enesco figurine. I love all eras of Garfield, and this is from his round-eyed era (I believe this was made in 1982). I have another figurine from this series, I can't recall the quote at the moment. I have a collection of Garfield stuff, I really got into him in the mid 1990's, and had a lot of Garfield t-shirts.

Whiskers & Mouse

I found this jar 'thing', hand-painted and sealed. It looks like it is a memorial jar in which you might store the ashes of "Whiskers" (a cat, presumably), but it is empty. It does not open. Perhaps it holds Whiskers' ghost...?

Somewhat related, I also found this ADORABLE little mouse figurine. At first I thought that it was the mouse from "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", but after I got home and looked it up and that mouse is slightly different.

Indian Elephant

I found this awesome Indian sari elephant footstool thing.

I have named him 'Harry Elefante'.

Van Craig Presents: The Vantastiks "Roaring 20's Black Mama Santa"

Yesterday I found a brand new ornament/figurine that I immediately fell in love with. How could you not love something this absolutely JOYFUL?

I'd never heard of Van Craig before, or his ornaments, but after googling this ornament, I see the others he has done and they are just as awesome.

She was brand new, package never opened. I, of course, removed her right away. I absolutely adore her. She is painted resin.

But my perfectionist streak has issues with her. Although she is brand new, she isn't very well-decorated. The sculpt is perfect, but the decoration is bad. She is clearly the victim of rushed mass-production. To be blunt, she's a mess. But that is fine with me, because that means she's my new project! Her mask is a cardboard cutout that was glued over her eyes, as designed. The glue has not aged well, which is a good thing because that means it was easy to take off. I was very glad to find sculpted eyes behind the mask, not just a flat area. The eyes aren't painted, but that's easily remedied.

If I can get her eyes the way I want them, I will reattach the mask differently. I'll put it on a stick and have it as a hand-held mask, and not on the face. My idea is above, with the blue stick acting as what I would do with the mask as far as placement. To illustrate the kind of mask I am talking about, here is one:

It wouldn't be that color, though, it would be the original mask, just on a hand-held stick.

She has a tiny bump on her left cheek, which is great. I don't know if it is a production flaw or if it was meant to be there, but I am glad it is there because I am going to make that a beauty mark.

She's got a lot of lovely danglies all over, beads and parts of the wrap. Unfortunately, the rushed assembly shows, and these all need re-doing. The fur danglies have the aged/yellowed glue problem, and one of them doesn't sway due to the glue covering the metal posts it is hanging from. The beaded waist danglies look great, but the ribbon they're attached to isn't in great shape.

All in all, I am glad that she isn't 'perfect', because I really look forward to giving her a make-over.

It turns out that I own an ornament from this series that is from the Van Craig series. I bought it at another thrift store a few years ago, and am glad to know more about it now. Interestingly enough, I bought her March 20, 2013, one day shy of 3 weeks to the year that I found the one above.

Abalone Shell Pair

Tonight BFF and I went to a thrift store we hadn't been to before. I was very happy to find these two abalone shells. The larger one is almost a foot wide, making it probably the largest one I now own. I hadn't brought enough with me to buy them together, but the owner wanted them to stay together, so he was awesome enough to include the smaller one with the ten dollars price. They'll remain together as long as I'm alive.

As they were purchased:

After washing:

Though they came together, they are not a pair. Abalone shells do not have 2 matching parts, they are a one-shelled organism. They are like land snails - the shells are their backs, and they have their 'foot' that covers their open area. I found this out recently, having thought that the abalone shell might be like a clam shell, with two pieces.

(photo courtesy www.aquariumofpacific.org)

I found a fantastic article about the abalone that I highly recommend. Find it HERE.