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.

December 3rd Trip

I found several goodies at the thrift store tonight. There were quite a few things there that I liked, but I managed to restrain myself on some of the more not 'gotta-have-it' items. We had a 30% off coupon that we used, so the prices posted are after the discount.

My favorite find of the night is this "12 Days of Christmas" ornament set:
(12 days of Christmas - 12 Drummers Drumming, Eleven Pipers Piping, Ten Lords a Leaping, Nine Ladies Dancing, Eight Maids a Milking, Seven Swans a Swimming, Six Geese a Laying, Five Golden Rings, Four Calling Birds, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree).

It was put out by Costco (Kirkland Signature brand) and the tag on each ornament is just a 'made in China' tag, so they'll have to come off before display. They are good-sized, about 3-5 inches each (the longest ones may be up to 6 inches). It was 6.99.

There was this porcelain hippo salt & pepper shaker set that I could not pass up - who can pass up a pair of precious porcelain hippos in a top hat?!

New, from Target, also M.I.C., someone's unwanted gift - there's a bit of tape and wrapping paper on the back. 1.39.

This awesome Transylvania/Romania/Dracula souvenir:

I plan to unleash some creativity on this, and paint his hair and eyes (because the eyes he comes with are comedically misaligned) and a jewel for his crown. It looks like there was something there, and if not, there should be something there. 69 cents.

I got this awesome handcarved/painted bugs on cactus:

I don't know what the 3 holes are for, perhaps pegs for keys? This goes with the Southwestern/Mexican art that I love and collect. 1.39.

I couldn't say no to this fishy/piggy bank (I apologise I didn't clean it before the photos).

It came from Old Navy, and has "2012" 'branded' on her rear. There were many different styles of these made for Old Navy, so perhaps one day I'll find more of the series? 34 cents.

I picked up a brand new VGA cord that I just realized yesterday I needed (to hook up my computer to the big tv screen) for 4 dollars:

I got these 2 little ones in a bag, I plan to use the nino del atocha for a little diorama. I didn't notice that the crown was damaged on the Statue of Liberty, but I can fix that. 3 inches tall, plastic.

And an 'honorable mention' from the other day, a lovely mirror, hand-hammered metal, made in Egypt:

2.10

November 10th Trip

My finds from this trip :)

2 large abalone shells:

I love these, they're so beautiful.

I found some forgotten Captian Kirk and Spock action figures, and washed them up:

They still had some caked-on dust on their shoes I had to go back and get later.

I found this fun sheep from Pier One:

It's about a foot tall/wide. It has a bit of wear, which is fine with me because I love to paint stuff, and this is perfect for customizing, since it already has been and isn't valuable or rare.

I almost got this desk clock (minus the clock) from Australia, but ultimately turned it down for some reason (I think Other Half urged me to not get it and now I regret having done so):