Kitschy Cats Vintage

I'm very excited to announce that BJ and I now have a space at Auntie M's in Hopkins, MN! We're calling this little shop Kitschy Cats Vintage. We move in on February first with some great Pyrex and other vintage kitchen items. I have big plans for a super fun display, but I won't be able to get it up until my birthday weekend at the end of February. Not to worry, we found some temporary accommodations for our wares and plan to work with that for the first few weeks. I'm happy to finally have a reason to be a professional thrifter! Not to mention all the space I'll get back after I get all that awesome junk out of the studio, which is slowly becoming a walk-in closet! >_<

As I've told you before, I'm a saver by blood and could easily cross the hoarder line. Some Most of the things we pick up will be going to our shop space, but there are a few things that need to be part of the Misco personal collection. Last weekend we hit an estate sale, scored big on Craigslist, and visited Stillwater for the first time together! The estate sale was a pink sale! I found a full set (minus lids) of pink Pyrex fridgies, but the 501s were DWD beyond recognition. They were what you might call fauxpal, so they stayed behind. The 502 is pretty bad, but the 503 is decent enough to display. I chose this sale for this poor Pyrex set and a gorgeous Westinghouse roaster. The roaster appeared in an original airing of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Presents the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show.) I really wanted it!

Isn't is beautiful? It was waaaaaay out of my price range, but probably fair retail. It didn't have any of the loaf pans, but did have the original instruction manual. The cart was also on my list, but I'd never pay what they wanted for yellow; it just doesn't match my color-scheme. Boo estate sales with antique store prices.

Saturday morning we headed out to Wisconsin to pick up New Dots and 444 Friendship from Craigslist ads that I've been eyeing for the longest time. Seeing as how the Friendship bowl lasted from at least the end of last summer until we finally picked it up in January, I was confident that a Starburst with a big price tag would last until we came up with the money to buy it. That was one of the big things in the works I mentioned earlier. Well, it's gone and my Pyrex dreams did not come true. I can't even pretend that I'm not crushed about it, but I have to move on I guess. I did complete my pink gooseberry set so that's something. When we went to Auntie M's to make our vendorship official, I caved and got a pair of cat eye glasses.

I was hoping to find the cups to match my atomic flower (aka 50's pot leaf) snack set I got at Arc's last year. I actually found a bunch in Stillwater, but they were all being sold with plates that I don't need. I may have bought this NOS set if I hadn't still been holding out for one of my holy grail Pyrex pieces, but I didn't know then that it had slipped through my fingers. Sigh...

We managed to find a few neat things for the shop during the two 50% off MLK sale days at Arc's. The day before the sale started, I found a really old clear, etched Pyrex with the dollar sign logo and a cradle. It's amazing that something made of glass can still be in such beautiful condition when it is nearly 100 years old!

I didn't manage to start on my gossip bench yet. We went to Menards but couldn't find the staples or sandpaper for manual sanding. We should be making another trip this weekend and hopefully it is more successful. It's one of those places that you can go to with a list and leave with everything but what you went for. I've got the added project of the shop display. I can't wait to post about the progress of both projects! It will be a busy weekend for us. We've got Twinsfest and the I Love Lucy stage show, and maybe even an estate sale tomorrow morning. Thankfully, it's supposed to be warm!