Marx Dollhouse

This was one of those poker face moments I thought would never happen to me at a garage sale.  I nearly squealed when I saw this dollhouse because it was one of those treasure I thought I'd NEVER come across (at least not one within my budget).  Somehow I managed to keep it together.

 

 A Marx dollhouse!

 

As you might be able to see, the house is missing a wall between the bathroom and child's room.  There are holes for the little metal tabs to go into, so I know there WAS a wall there at one time.

 



 

 

The bathroom and part of the baby's room, below.

 

 

And here is the living room.

 

 

And I just LOVE the read and white kitchen with it's little red clock on the wall, red and white tile and curtains!

 

The little plastic sink has drain boards!  And look at that 1950s fridge.

 



 

And here is the kid's room or baby's room.  I like the decorations on the walls.

 

 

Here is the master bedroom.  (And no, that's not a subliminal billboard message through the window making you crave Taco Johns, it's just our cat's sleeping box that happened to be behind the house when I shot these photos.)

 

 

And the cute little laundry room on the end.  Now, some of these I have seen as a garage, one was even a bomb shelter (1962) that I've heard is very rare as they were made in small quantities and didn't sell real well.  I like that mine is a laundry room because....well, I like happy laundry rooms!

 

 And here is the mark that makes it a MARX. 

 

 

Originally, I think it's suppose to have a little patio tent like thing that stood over that patio, but mine is missing many pieces including the chairs for the kitchen table.  My mother said her kitchen chairs were ivory, just like the table, with little red seats.

 

Below is a similar one from the 1952 Sears catalog.  The one in the catalog is fancier with a den on one end (we call them man caves now), and a breezeway. And how much FUN would that gas station be for playing!?

 

Now, according to the internet and the big wide world of pinterest, there was another tin, lithograph, dollhouse manufacturer called T Cohn and the T Cohn 1948 house was a popular one it seems.  Here it is.

 

It is very similar and has the "Victorian" looking living room furniture and red and white kitchen chairs my mother remembered hers to have.  (Mom, it almost sounds as if you had Cohn furniture, but a MARX house just like mine.)

Here's another shot of a Cohn house from Pinterest. I thank up and down the person who posted these online, they are so much fun to see!

 

 

I really like the Cohn style furniture better because it is a bit bigger and has a bit more detail than the Marx furniture I got with the house.

 

Until another time, have a happy vintage day!!

 

Vintage Garage Sale Finds

My folks came up a few weekends ago and we did some garage sales together.

I was lucky enough to find these nifty little items.

 

A cute little S&P set that are grain elevators!  I've seen these at the flea market before, but they are always a bit out of my budget.  Good things come to those who wait!  After cleaning them up a bit they turned out pretty cute.

 

 

I also found some small US flags at the same sale.

 

 

Also found a few goodies for the daycare.  All in all it was a good day of "sale-ing"

That's all for today!  Until next time have a happy vintage day!

 

1975 Calendar Towel

Last summer I purchased this cool little calendar towel from a church rummage sale. I don't think it's had it's moment on the blog, so here it is.  I apologize for the fuzzy photo.
 

 

Why did I purchase this particular towel?  First of all I like the little prayer at the top of the towel.  Second, it's from 1975...the year of my birth!  Those qualities, plus the fact that it depicts a cute cottage with its inviting path to the door, and not anything too 70's or "Brady Bunch-ish", like orange and green mushrooms.

 

(you can see those 70s mushrooms in your head can't you?  If not, here you go...)

 

Never cared for them, don't know why.

 

According to the calendar above, I was born on a Wednesday.  How does the saying go?  Wednesday's child is full of woe?  Interesting.  I wouldn't call it woe...maybe just a bit of worry.  Maybe THAT's why I can't stand to watch the news, because I was born on a Wednesday.

 

Well, that's all for today.  Until another time, have a happy vintage day!

 

 

 

Garage Sale Finds part 2

As I said last time, I visited a garage sale right down my own street and they had loads of vintage goodies to offer.

Now, some of you may know that I LOVE old time country music.  I have downloaded many radio programs such as WLS National Barn Dance and some Grand Ole Opry episodes from 1939.  There was even a 10-2-4 Ranch show (sponsored by Doctor Pepper, hence the title) that played country music.  Some of my favorite performers are Hank Snow, Kitty Wells, Hank Williams, Johnny Horton...the list goes on and on.

So, when I spotted this I knew it would really help me to know these performers better!  It's like it was meant to be! 

 

 

There are two autographs on the back, but I really can't make out the names.  They are most likely band members, from someone's show...who knows, but they are kind of cool.

 

 

This is a souvenir program, so there are little write-ups on many of the country stars of the day.  Funny, there is NO DATE on this program and that drives me nuts!  There is one hint!  In Grandpa Jones' write-up they say he is a "youngster" of 41.  So I did some figuring and Grandpa Jones turned 41 in October of 1954...so I'm guessin' this booklet is most likely from late 1954-1955.

 

 

 

I just love all the neat photos!

 

Then, I finally found a little travel alarm clock.  I've wanted one for quite some time and IT WORKS!  My dad showed me how to wind it up and set the alarm and turn it off again.  It's a loud little bugger, but it will be fun to use sometime.

 

 

 

Well, I think that is everything we found at the little garage sale down the street.  It was a great day!

 

I'll leave you now with one of my favorites by Kitty Wells. It's an old, old video, therefore the video quality is a little strange, but the sound quality is pretty good.  ENJOY!

 

 

Until another time, ya'll have a happy vintage day!

Garage Sale Finds part 1

A few weeks ago, I stopped at a garage sale down the street.  There were lots of vintage goodies and I picked out a few things.

 

 

These beautiful (have never seen a dishwasher) Christmas glasses, set of 5, were a wonderful find!  I've always wanted a set of Christmas glasses.

 

 

I bought this plastic, Christmas tablecloth thinking it was JUST a Christmas tablecloth.  Imagine my surprise when I opened it up in my kitchen and discovered it was reversible!  It is a Christmas AND a Birthday tablecloth in one!

 

 

 

 

I had never heard of these before and didn't realize they existed!  How FUN!

 

 

These smallish, circular, Christmas...I think they might be tablecloths, were also in the linens pile.  I'm seriously thinking about making one into a tree skirt for my little vintage tree.  The edges are unfinished, which made my mother wonder if there had been an outer ring of embellishments of some sort (maybe puff-balls).  They are cute though, and diffidently vintage!

 

My heart about skipped a beat when I saw the box, below.

 

 

Some of the ornaments are plastic, some are from what look to be the very late 60's into 70's but there is one little beauty in there that I think could be from the early 50s!  Can you spot it?

 

 

Well hello there, you pretty little ornament!

 

 

He will be a nice addition to our little vintage tree.

 

Well, that's all for today.  Most of the finds were Christmas in nature, but next time I will share a couple of other neat little finds!  Stay tuned, and have a happy, vintage day!

Beaver Creek Rummage Sale

The folks and I stopped at the Beaver Creek rummage, bake sale and lunch a few weeks ago.  The drive in the country was beautiful!

 

 

 There were some great little finds at this sale!  One of my favorites was this ice cream (excuse me, Ice Milk) container that someone had used to store all of their cookie cutters in for many years.  The cookie cutters didn't interest me as much as the container did so I transferred them all to another  basket.  The nice, elderly ladies watched me and were a bit surprised that all I wanted was the container.

   

As luck would have it there was also a box full of vintage jewelry, some of them quite old.

I picked out two pairs of earrings to add to my vintage costumes.

 

  

 

I also found this sweet, little, green pill box.

 

Daughter and I went gaga over these vintage wrapping papers! I'm guessing they might be from the the late 1960s...maybe early 70s.

Luckily, there are still quite a few days before I need to start thinking about Christmas!

That's all for today.  Until another time, have a happy vintage day!




 

Pop Bottle Caps

Uh-oh, I feel a new collection is forming in my already crowded house!  I've discovered pop bottle caps.  I already have a few bottles, and one of those bottles (my Nesbitt's Orange bottle) already has a cap.

 

 

But, this past weekend I was able to get out-n-about to a few garage sales.  One older gentleman had a snack baggie of vintage bottle caps (about 9 in the bag).  For about the same price as a bottle of pop in today's market, I was able to bring these precious little cuties home!

 

The ones that struck me as the most peculiar were the ones that say 5-Hi on them (see top row of caps).  I'd never heard of 5-Hi pop so I looked it up on the internet and had no luck.  Most of the caps in the bag say either Williston Bottling Company or Plentywood Montana Bottling on them and most of them have a very small WHS on the band, and I have NO idea what that means.

 

So on a hunch I looked on Ebay and wouldn't you know...I found a "rare" pop bottle with the 5-Hi label on the front! The bottle says, "bottled by Wildwood Beverage Co. Plentywood, Montana"!  For those of you who may not know, Montana is our state's neighbor and I grew up fairly close to Williston and the Montana boarder.  As a college student, my crew and I would cross the Montana line and drive to Fairview to buy lottery tickets and eat jalapeno poppers from their local gas station.  Ahhh, good times, good times.

But anyway...Here is the Ebay bottle.

 

  

 

Apparently, Wildwood Beverage Co made 5-Hi Root Beer, Lemon Soda, Cream Soda, Concorde Grape, Cherry-Strawberry.

I'm thinking Cherry-Strawberry would've been heavenly.  But I like Cream Soda too...and Root Beer, and Grape Soda.  Oh it would've been so hard to pick just one!  See!  Isn't bottle cap collecting a perfect hobby for me!?

 

So I e-mailed my dad, who is quite a local historian.  He was born and raised near Williston and has, for the most part, stayed nearby.  If it happened in the vicinity of his hometown, he probably remembers it, and those who were involved. 

 

He remembers 5-Hi being in Plentywood MT and remembers the company being sold to a man who turned it into a Pepsi Bottling Company instead.

I suppose that makes sense in a way, why be Harry's Hamburgers, that no one's ever heard of, when you could be McDonald's.  And I do like Pepsi, I mean who doesn't love the Nickel Nickel jingle?

  But it's also sad that the "bigger" franchise bought out the smaller, local company and *poof* 5-Hi pop was made no longer.  But, you know what they say, "you can't stop progress".  Maybe not, but wouldn't it be nice to be able to regress once in awhile?  Just to go back for spell to witness a simpler time.  A time when grocery stores were owned by folks who lived right down the block.  Or a time when kids could stand in line at the local bottling company on "parade day" and watch the glass bottles being washed, dried, filled and inspected, with each child receiving a free bottle of pop at the end?  How wonderful I'll bet that was for kids, especially for the kids who were given pop ONLY as a rare treat!  (Dad told me that story too).

On that note, here's a neat little video (only 45 seconds long) of a vintage bottling company.  Looks like the syrup is put into the bottle first, then the water, then capped.

Well, that's all for today.  Until another time, since you can no longer open up a refreshing 5-Hi, "be sociable-have a Pepsi" and have a "fizzy" kind of vintage day!



 



New Embroidery Floss and Garage Sale Finds

Last Saturday morning I woke up not thinking I was going to go to any garage sales, but I decided to go to just one since it was in my neighborhood.  Am I ever glad I went!  There were lots of craft supplies, needlepoint, cross stitch and embroidery supplies.  There were frames, stretcher bars, and a stretcher bar attached to a cherry wood stand that I passed up as I don't do any large counted cross stitching.  
The lady in charge was very nice and when she found out I liked to embroider, we started talking about the different forms of needlework.  As I was checking out she ran across the garage and said, "did you see this one?" and held up the book below.  I hadn't, and she actually GAVE it to me!

She said, "I'm just so happy that it's going to someone who will enjoy it". 
That NEVER happens to me (it's happened to my daughter a few times).   I was so tickled!  And I love the book.  I've drooled over a copy that lives in the antique store, downtown, but now I have one of my very own!

It's a wonderful book with instructions about all sorts of needlework, crochet, knitting, tatting, lace making, quilting, YOU NAME IT!

The garage sale lady also had pillow forms (I picked up two small ones), and she had a dozen or so of these "The Creative Circle"  kits.  I chose only one...this "Shining Nativity" because of it's bright colors and that fact that it is copyright 1983 (There were a lot of great years throughout my childhood, but for some reason '83 stands out as one of the greatest.). 

The kit contains a pile of 6-ply embroidery thread, and it's looks like it's all satin stitch, which I like, so it would be a "doable" project for me, skill wise. 

Then there was a quick trip to Hobby Lobby where I put my anniversary gift certificate from my DH to good use.  I initially went in for 5 different floss colors but came out with 25.  Does that ever happen to anyone else?  It happens to me quite often in the grocery store, I stop for milk and end up with 50$ worth of items.  But, lately it's been happening with embroidery thread too haha!

That's all for today!
I'm still stitching away on a new project I will share with you real soon.
Until then, have a Happy Stitching Day!