Pick of the Week - Trumpet Girl Brooch

This week's Pick of the Week is an item we found on Etsy that embodies the fun of summer parades and easy going weekend whimsy:

Antique Convect Glass Photo Brooch, Paris

  I picture this brooch securing a fat silk ribbon to a wide brim summer hat and perhaps taken on an afternoon boat ride. I love vintage items that you can easily imagine a story around, this is one of those great sort of vintage finds that Grrl Pickers love.

                                 -Laura

Time to put away the flannel jammies...

Grrl Pickers made a new friend on facebook today and are so impressed with our new friend's eBay shop that we have decided to make one of her great vintage items our newest,

 "Pick of the Week"

 This is the perfect thing to wear while sipping an icy cocktail and watching the blades of a vintage metal fan spin by an open window on a hot summers night:

From BrownEyesBlue ebay shop, Vintage 1950's nightie

 Check out the rest of her shop while you are there, lots of fun stuff at very reasonable prices.

  Summer time is coming, is your evening wardrobe ready?

                       : )

Pick of the Week

  This week's Pick of the Week is a trading card from the 1978 BeeGees flick Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band feturing Aerosmith.

Pick of the Week - Aerosmith trading card 1978

  'Cause the only thing Grrl Pickers like better than hot guitar guys is vintage guitar guys. : )

# Use the 19th

Grrl Pickers are absolutely delighted to post thier 35th item in the Grrl Pickers Etsy shop:

The 19th ammendment, use it or lose it.

We can't wait to make more of these and have a bunch of our 'uppity women' friends over for tea! : )

 

Click below to view in Grrl Pickers Etsy shop:

# Use the 19th Tea Towel

Lucky Day

A couple of days ago I found myself digging through the dusty gold at my favorite place to pick old records ( Lucky Day Thrift in Stoughton, MA) when I came across something unusual.

 I didn't realize just how unusual until I got it home and gave it a closer look.

    I have to preface this by stating just how much I love 78rpm records. From the substantial weight of the records themselves, to the importance they place on the song by only featuring a limited amount of the very best ones on each record to the great labels and history behind the artists and recordings. Each 78rpm record produced was made to be played At the time they were produced,
 no one was thinking,
   "I'm going to keep this sealed in it's original package because someday there will be a thing called the internet and my grandkids can go to college on the value of this record."
     Even if the original music fans who bought these records had a crystal ball, they would have chosen to not invest heavily in 78's. At best, I make a buck or 2 on each I sell. Enough to get me on the subway to get to work in the morning but not enough to send me to Harvard, or even Yale. Still, it's the thrill of the chase that makes the picking game fun...

    Every scratch on every 78 record I buy makes me think of some "cat" in a racoon coat carrying a stack of hits over to the home of some flapper "kid" with a scandalously short cropped hair cut so they can perfect crazy dance moves to that same hit song repeated over and over again to the delight of the whole neighborhood.
     Maybe I've just got an over active imagination but considering the condition I find these things in, I don't think I'm all that far off the mark.

Anyhoo...

    Yesterday I found a selection of records that tickled my fancy and an item that I thought was a bit of neat old advertising so I went to reverse haggle with the boss.
   (Lucky Day profits benefit charity and I have never once left that shop without insisting that they take more than they are asking for the piles of great finds I walk out with.
   "Really? Only 5 bucks? Did you see how awesome this thing is? I don't want to cheat you. I'll give you 10 bucks and that's my final offer."
    (A 1940 edition in acceptable condition of "The Well of Lonliness", Ink Spots 78's, many vintage sweaters and handbags that Grrl Pickers easily made 500% profit upon re-sale. The place is a GOLD mine for quantity vintage sellers)

   But I digress...

      This is the fun thing I found on my last pick at Lucky Day:

   It was not a neat piece of advertising ephemera, it's an actual record.

     I noticed the grooves on the front and looked up a few key words from the record.

      "Durium" records were produced in the mid 1930's to accomodate the shrinking wallets of depression era music lovers. They were inexpensively produced and in turn, cost less for the consumer. They're not particularly tough but that makes finding one in halfway decent condition even more rare.

     Fun for me as a contemporary seller is that this tune was apparently used in the soundtrack for the modern flick 'Water For Elephants'. A movie made of a book that I and many others absolutely loved.
   This record is now posted for auction on ebay, let's see if anyone else finds it half as fascinating as I do...

    And so the circle keeps spinning, can wait to see what treaures the flip side (our next pick) brings!
                                                                    : )

     

 

Postcard Collecting

I found this site today and I absolutely love it!

   Postcardy.com

It's full of all kinds of interesting facts and images of postcards from all over the world. It's a well managed and moderated site so there are no junk posts and questions get answered very fast.

    This particular topic I found very interesting:

  Discussion thread, Swedish Easter Witches

       I have never heard of Easter witches and would have assumed all postcards bearing images of witches would be halloween related.

     Neat information and a fun fact to have on board that these cards are particularly collectible when searching for new things to sell.

                            

Recycle-ReUse-ReTreasure!

 Every now and then my partner Lacy and I try to come up with a catchy slogan for Grrl Pickers that can be used on T-shirts, bumper stickers, direct mail postcards etc.

     We haven't come up with a really good, catchy slogan yet but the one thing know for sure is the word 'Re-Treasuring' must be used, we are both absolutely in love with this word.

    This is a link to another etsy seller who is taking her selling outside the box and instead of selling finished products, she is selling the authetic vintage supplies so others can create their own re-treasured masterpieces:     

  SaturdayAMvintage Etsy Shop

   (I checked out this shops feedback and she has sold large amounts of scraps of stuff to some very pleased buyers. Her idea of selling old scraps seems to be supported by a sound base of consumer demand.)

     In our ever growing Grrl Pickers inventory we have tons of old stamps, game pieces, puzzle pieces, and vintage books that are falling apart. I figure it is best to move what items we can rather than wait for either Lacy or I to have the spare time (I have 2 day jobs and Lacy has a toddler, spare time? What is that?!?) to create our own masterpieces.

    I want to make this blog the sort of place that other sellers come to for great ideas and this is the best one I've seen lately, so I sincerely hope it is useful information to others as well.   

   
   I can't wait to get started selling our scrap items in lots to crafty crafters!  

                                                       -Laura