July was awesome! Hit 500 Sales on Etsy!

Based on what I have read in some other blogs, July wasn't exactly a great month or even a good month for vintage sellers. Surprisingly enough though, this was my 2nd best month selling on Etsy since I started back in March 2011. Only November 2011 was better. Woo hoo! I even hit a milestone in July: my 500th item sold on July 9th. What was # 500?

A Star-burst She Ra action figure:

Pretty awesome!

Fifty-eight listings from my Etsy shop were sold! I have been working very hard at listing lots of new items in my shop and I feel like it has really paid off. :) I'm still working steadily through my unlisted inventory and have been pretty good about not buying a whole lot of new things. Hopefully I'll get some boxes cleared out so there is more space in the room I use as an office.

Here are all the things I sold in the month of July on Etsy:

Hooray for July! :D

Guess the Puzzle! Springbok puzzles - again

What do you think that this puzzle will be when it is finished?

Any clues hidden in there?  I see some eyes!  

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Some Fraggle eyes!

I found this awesome Fraggle Rock Puzzle at a thrift store in town a while back. I've lately been shopping but not buying anything - trying to slim down the inventory / i.e. closet full of toys. This is one thing that made it home with me though. It is a Fraggle Rock puzzle for crying out loud... AND it is a Springbok puzzle. I am probably the only person alive who is obsessed with one brand of puzzles. Well, maybe not. I did watch a documentary on the Monopoly game which featured some people who collected Monopoly games. I imagine if there are people like that then there are also people who only collect Springbok or whatever other brand of puzzles. 

These puzzles are great because the pieces are all uniquely cut and they hold together well enough that you can generally pick up the whole puzzle without it falling apart (I  hate loose puzzles). 

They just make quality puzzles that are fun to put together. I was especially excited when I found that all the pieces were included. Yeah! The box has seen better days (a little smashed), but the image has good color, so I can see it as a fun display piece for someone with a Muppet/Jim Henson/Fraggle Rock collection. Oh man, now THAT would be a cool collection to see. 

Interested in hearing about what other people found on their thrifting adventures? Check out ApronThriftGirl's Thrift Share Monday!

80s Toys Thrifting & Corn Nuggets

My mom came to visit this past Saturday and we went together to a nearby town to go to some thrift stores & stop at this awesome little cafe to get an order of corn nuggets! I only know of two or three places that make these little fried delicacies:

They are a mix of corn and creamed corn - fried into little bite-sized pieces. They are gooey and delicious! The cafe is quite charming and I really wish that it was in my town instead of 45 minutes away. They serve coffee, a large variety of sandwiches with great sides like the corn nuggets.

The place is called "Past Times" and is located in downtown Watertown South Dakota. A friend of mine from high school introduced me to the place.

I like the tall booths and cool old ceilings. The people who work there are very nice and the food is fresh, unique and tasty!

But enough of food - we also went to a bunch of the thrift stores in town. A number of them are independent (not chain stores) and have great prices. The Goodwill in town is pretty good too (some Goodwills in other towns just seem to have relatively high prices). One thrift store goes by the name of "Saks Thrift Avenue" (funny!)

I came home with a small assortment of 80s toys including two small Pound Puppies, a miniature Popple, My Little Pony sea pony float (pink alligator), a red Sprite (originally sold at Taco Bell), and a bag full of great 80s stampers! The bag had 6 Poochie stampers and 2 My Little Pony stampers. It was great fun and I spent under $5.

If you're interested in hearing about what other people found on their thrifting adventures check out ApronThriftGirl's ThriftShare Monday!

Summer Arts Festival

Last weekend there was an art festival in town. I was amazed with how big it was! I really wasn't expecting there to be so many booths and so many people. There were clear blue skies that day (not much rain lately at all really) and it was pretty hot in the sun. Lots of people + heat = blah. If it had been a little cooler I think it would have been really enjoyable.

The festival had more than just art - there were antique booths, some historical type groups, and of course food booths. I would have liked perusing through the antique booths to see if there was anything of interest, but there wasn't any room to move the aisles of stuff were so narrow there was hardly enough room for one person to move through. I gave up rather quickly.

Many of the art tents were set up along the street which was great because at least there was space for people to move. I enjoyed looking at some wildlife art and other paintings. I saw a lot of people carrying around crazy lawn art. I didn't take any close up photos of booths because a lot of them had 'no photography' signs, which I suppose I can understand.

The park was a good venue for the festival - it was great to have lots of shade from the trees and there were sweet smelling flowers too. It's just a nice park - I come here lots of time on my lunch break and have a picnic lunch. Usually there are hardly any people at the park, so it was interesting to see it so packed full of people for the art festival!

Vintage Sewing Patterns at the Laundromat

Today I'm not blogging about kids toys or books - a little divergence for the day. I love vintage sewing patterns. They have great graphics and they are flat and light which makes them easy to mail. I really don't know anything about fashion, and very little about sewing, but these little vintage pieces are fun glimpses into the past. I enjoy going through them with my mom since she loves to sew and a lot of the patterns I pick up are from the 60s & 70s so she'll have commentary on certain looks, or remembers some patterns that she had herself.

For each pattern I go through all the pieces and make sure that they are accounted for. I make myself a little check-list and make notes along the way to make sure the instructions are still included, note if the pattern is complete, cut or uncut, still factory folded, the date & pattern number.

Since I moved last month I've had to start going to a laundromat since there are no onsite laundry facilities. So I take a batch of patterns with me and my clipboard to the laundromat. I work on checking through them while I wait for the laundry. It's actually pretty relaxing.

The little town I live in has a laundromat which has some pros and cons. Usually there is no one there which is nice, but the reason they aren't there is because there is no air conditioning and only about half of the machines actually work lol. The change machine and bathroom are also out of order and the snack/drink machine has probably been empty for five years. I imagine eventually all of the machines will stop working and no one will ever fix them.

The town looks like a ghost town on Sundays...

It's a pretty big change from living in Memphis. I actually like this little tiny town a lot though.

Before and After: My Little Pony Twirler

Just a quick 'Before and After' for today. I cleaned up some My Little Ponies including the one below named Twirler. She is a Dance 'n Prance pony from the seventh year of the original My Little Pony line (released in 1988). Spin the knob on her chest and her tail will twirl around! (so strange...)

Twirler Before

She didn't need much cleaning, but her tail was pretty limp and boring. I dampened the tail with water, combed it out, then wrapped around a pen and secured with a hair clip. Then she dried overnight.

Twirler After

Such a simple fix to make her pretty again!

Kitty at My Foot and I Wanna Touch It

Had some pretty nice weather out today with plenty of sunshine for taking photos. I don't get very good light inside and have never bothered to make myself a light box, so I just wait for nice days to take pictures of my treasures to sell.

So I brought out my poster board, and a bucket of toys and things. After taking pictures of a few things, I find I have attracted a visitor:

Oh - hello there kitty. You seem friendly (not my cat). He was content to sit by the bucket of toys for about two minutes.

After that he discovered it was fun to play under the poster board while I took photos.  'Hey kitty, trying to work here!'

Sneaking under the poster board to pounce on me:

Eventually he came out from under there (as I continued to try and photograph my items)... but then proceeded to walk around on top of the poster board.

Yes, yes... you're very cute and friendly, and obviously need some attention.  Did I mention I was trying to work here?? I pet him and played with him a bit, but that of course encouraged him. Eventually the play got a little too rough - as in claws through the jeans and play-biting. No kitty! No! Reminded me of a song my husband likes: "Kitty at My Foot and I Wanna Touch It" by the Presidents of the USA.

I gave up taking the photos of the rest of the items. My little kitty visitor was pretty fun while it lasted though.